r 


ii8»i(» 


OMMON 

MindTroubl 


>V  FAIUNGS 

D^ECTS  OF  MEMORY 
■  \  CONnJSJONS  OF  THOUGHT 
SLEEPLESSNESS 

HEsmmNAND 

ERmSINSPEECH  \ 
im/SPJRITs\ 

TEMPERS 


BY 


iSm  J.Mortimer  Gra^^ville 


HBttiMMi 


msssftsii 


MMMiiliPy^; 


I 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/commonmindtroublOOgranrich 


COMMON  MIND-TROUBLES. 


COMMON 
MIND-TROUBLES. 


BY 

y.  MORTIMER'GRANVILLE. 


NINTH    THOUSAND. 


LONDON: 

W.    H.    ALLEN    &    CO., 
13  WATEELOO   PLACE,  PALL  MALL.     S.W. 

1885. 


SIOL-LIB. 


Q4i  cf  fij.   SreoJ^erJjJ 


liONDON  : 
PBINTED    BT   W.   H.   AliLEN    AND   CO.,   13   WATEBIJOO    PliAOB 


TO   THE   READER. 


I  AM  encouraged  by  the  reception  which  has 
been  accorded  to  my  previous  papers  on  the 
subject  of  mind-troubles,  by  the  press,  the 
public,  and  the  profession,  to  adventure  a 
further  selection.  I  would  only  ask  the  scien- 
tific reader,  if  any  such  should  honour  this 
little  volume  by  his  notice,  to  remember  that 
these  essays,  like  those  which  have  preceded 
them,  were  not  written  for  persons  who  have 
professionally  investigated  the  phenomena  of 
which  they  treat.  The  sole  purpose  has  been 
to  seize  on  a  few  salient  difficulties  and  grapple 
with  them,  in  the  interests  of  self-help.  The 
key-note  of  the  theme  is  the  presumption  that 
there  is  often — if  not  generally — a  stage  of  con- 
scious embarrassment  preceding  mental  derange- 
ment or  mind  weakness,  and  while  this  condi- 
tion exists  there  is  hope  in  the  power  of  repair 

202539 


vi  Preface. 

and  self-recovery  which  exists  in  the  mind  not 
less  than  in  the  body.  To  this  belief  I  must 
adhere. 

J.  MORTIMER-GRANVILLE. 
Oct,  i8'78. 


Note  to  the  Fifth  Thousand. 

The  success  which  has  attended  this  series  of 
papers  gives  me  ground  to  hope  they  have  been 
found  useful.  I  have  therefore  determined  to 
issue  a  new  edition,  simultaneously  with  the 
appearance  of  a  complementary  series  under 
the  title  ''  The  Secret  of  a  Clear  Head."  Read 
together  I  trust  these  little  books  may  be 
helpful  in  mental  hygiene. 

J.  M.-G. 

Apfil  1879. 


CONTENTS. 


FAGB 

Failings      ••••••••      i 

Defects  of  Memory 13 

Confusions  of  Thought.  •  •  .  23 
Sleeplessness  from  Thought  .  .35 
Hesitation  and  Errors  in  Speech      46 

Low  Spirits 57 

Tempers — Good  and  Bad  .  .  .66 
**  Creatures  of  Circumstance*       •     78 


"l^ 


FAILINGS. 

We  all  have  our  failings^  and  for  the  most  part 
we  regard  them  tenderly.  They  do  not  count  as 
offences;  scarcely  are  they  held  to  be  faults.  It 
is  always  a  probable  conjecture  that  an  error  of 
omission  has  been  unintentional;  not  unfrequently 
it  seems  possible  it  was  unavoidable.  A  sentiment 
of  pity  for,  and  even  sympathy  with,  weakness 
overpowers  the  sense  of  grievance;  the  voice  of 
the  inward  monitor  is  silenced,  and  the  self-excused 
conscience  sleeps.  Meanwhile  failings  are  the  worst 
and  most  mischievous,  the  deadliest  and  least  curable, 
of  the  ills  to  which  the  moral  nature  of  man  is  heir. 
They  are  the  sources  of  evil  whence  spring  the 
blackest  vices  of  human  character,  the  false  roots  that 
nourish  and  sustain  its  parasites,  and  steal  the  sap  of 
its  inner  life.  A  failing  is  not  merely  negative ;  its 
sinister  aspect  is  one  of  positive  wrong-doing,  wherein 
some  behest  of  the  will  is  disobeyed,  a  measure  of 
moral  power  wasted,  a  rebel  habit  formed  or  fostered. 
To  compassionate   failings  in   others  is  to  beg  the 

B 


Common  Mind-Troubles. 


question  of  fact  for  the  sake  of  politeness ;  to  look 
with  leniency  on  the  errors  which  self  would  fain 
palliate,  by  assuming  that  they  are  unavoidable^  is  to 
play  the  traitor  to  Truth,  and  let  the  enemy  into  the 
citadel ;  whereas  conscience  is  set  to  guard  the  nature 
of  man  from  treachery  not  less  carefully  than  to 
protect  it  against  assault. 

Failings  may  be  moral,  mental,  or  physical,  as  they 
show  themselves  in  the  character,  the  intellect,  or  the 
bodily  habit  and  powers.  It  generally  happens  that 
what  strikes  the  observer  as  a  failing  is  compounded 
of  errors  in  feeling,  thought,  and  action  combined. 
The  practical  question  is  how  the  overt  evil  came  into 
existence  ;  or,  if  happily  the  failing  should  be  detected 
in  an  earlier  stage  of  growth,  before  it  has  betrayed 
its  presence  by  ugly  consequences,  we  may  ask  :  what 
are  the  mischievous  forces,  where  are  they  at  work, 
how  can  they  be  counteracted  ?  Why  has  this  person 
the  "  faihng  "  of  a  tendency  to  excessive  indulgence  in 
drink  or  the  gratification  of  some  unbridled  passion ; 
and  that  individual  a  seeming  inability  to  recognise 
and  pursue  the  right  and  honest  course  of  conduct 
.  in  the  presence  of  any  so-called  "  temptation "  or 
difficulty  ? 

A  search  for  the  causes,  and  the  conditions  which 
have  determined  the  development,  of  failings  is 
reasonable,  and  it  will  not  be  profitless.     Many  of 


Failings.  3 

the  shortcomings  we  deplore  as  irremediable  might 
be  amended,  perhaps  wholly  eradicated,  if,  with  the 
light  experience  and  science  can  bring  to  bear  on  the 
subject  of  human  character,  the  will  were  charged 
resolutely  to  look  for  the  hidden  sources  of  weakness, 
pliability,  subjugation  to  passion,  moral  obliquity  or 
seeming  lack  of  principle,  together  with  those  less 
blamed  but  equally  disastrous  defects,  indolence, 
want  of  perseverance,  and  indifference  to  truth,  which 
combine  to  form  or  are  themselves  what  the  weak- 
minded  and  the  unwise  call  "  failings." 

Some  of  the  most  regrettable  and  injurious  failings 
which  disfigure  and  defame  the  character  run  through 
families,  appearing  in  successive  generations  and  seem- 
ing to  be  inherited.  This  theory  of  their  perpetuation 
is  well  founded ;  and  it  has  been  adduced  as  conclu- 
sive evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  hypothesis  that  mind, 
and,  of  course,  character,  is  the  mere  outcome  of 
matter.  The  force  of  the  argument  obviously  rests 
on  the  assumption  that  nothing  more  than,  or  outside, 
matter  can  be  transmitted  from  parent  to  child ;  that 
a  particular  constitution  of  brain  and  nerve  centres,  a 
special  arrangement  or  combination  of  the  elements 
which  compose  the  mind-organ,  may  be  reproduced, 
and,  if  it  is,  a  similarity  of  character  will  be  entailed ; 
but  as  for  the  independent  existence  of  mind,  or  spirit, 
that  is  a  pure  figment  of  the  imagination,  which  science 

B    2 


Common  Mind-Troubles, 


will  sooner  or  later  drive  beyond  the  pale  of  credulity, 
and  to  which,  even  now,  only  a  few  thinkers,  crippled 
by  prejudices,  avowedly  cling ! 

Let  us  examine  this  proposition  at  close  quarters. 
It  may  be  stated  thus.  All  we  know  of  mind  is  ex- 
pressed, and  understood,  by  physical  agencies  and 
in  the  formulae  of  material  force.  Speech  communi- 
cates thought,  and  we  think  in  words.  The  faculty 
of  forming  and  employing  words  is  a  brain  function. 
If  a  particular  region  of  the  brain  be  injured  or 
diseased,  the  power  of  using  language,  at  least  in 
speech,  is  generally  lost.  The  materialist  argues  from 
this  and  many  similar  facts  that  mind  is  the  product 
of  matter.  He  fails  to  perceive  that  the  only  warrant- 
able deduction  from  his  own  data  is  that  mind  or 
spirit,  call  it  what  we  will,  can  only  express  itself 
through  the  brain  as  an  instrument.  As  well  deny 
the  skill  or  independent  existence  of  a  musician 
because  he  cannot  play  the  full  score  of  an  opera 
on  a  flute,  as  infer  the  non-existence  of  a  soul  from 
the  fact  that  man  cannot  perform  intellectual  work 
without  the  organ  of  thought — the  brain  ! 

The  capacity  of  the  instrument  doubtless  limits  the 
expression,  but  it  supplies  no  measure  of  the  power 
or  skill  of  the  performer,  except  in  so  far  as  the  use 
he  makes  of  the  instrument  may  be  a  bad  one.  This 
exception  is  of  great  significance,  and  there  will  be 


Failings.  5 

something  more  to  say  about  it  presently.  Meantime  it 
is  evident  that,  while  the  range  of  brain-power  deter- 
mines the  manifestation  of  mind,  it  neither  measures, 
nor  affirms,  nor  disproves  the  independent  existence 
of  mind.  The  anatomist,  the  physiologist,  and  the 
chemist  declare  their  inability  to  discover  the  traces 
of  a  soul  in  the  physical  organism.  That  no  more 
proves  the  non-existence  of  a  soul  than  the  failure  to 
recognise  more  than  a  certain  number  of  planets  at 
any  stage  in  the  history  of  astronomy  demonstrated 
that  there  was  nothing  further  to  find. 

History  and  experience  attest  the  folly  of  denying 
the  existence  of  the  unknown.  And  it  is  especially 
unwise,  or  unscientific,  to  assume  the  non-existence 
of  a  psychical  power,  working  in  or  through  the 
physical  nature  of  man,  because  it  is  only  upon  the 
hypothesis  that  such  a  power  exists  we  are  able  to 
understand  and  explain  some  of  the  commonest  and 
most  clearly-defined  phenomena  of  mind  and  cha- 
racter. For  example,  two  individuals  are  found  to 
have  had  brains  of  microscopically  similar  quality, 
and  of  equal  weight.  They  are  both  highly  developed, 
and  any  differences  they  present  to  the  critical  ob- 
server, armed  with  the  most  subtle  tests  which  science 
•can  devise,  are  of  a  nature  which  experience  has 
shown  to  be  functionally  unimportant.  The  two  indi- 
viduals have,  during  life,  been  surrounded  by  circum- 


Common  Mind-Troubles. 


stances  which  throw  no  light  on  their  idiosyncrasies. 
Nevertheless  the  moral  character  of  the  one  has  beens 
wholly  bad,  that  of  the  other  strikingly  exemplary. 
How  is  it  possible  to  account  for  this  difference  except 
on  the  hypothesis  of  a  soul  ? 

There  is  no  more  wide-spread,  but  utterly  ground- 
less fallacy,  than  that  which  strives  to  associate  virtue 
or  vice  with  particular  forms  of  development.  It  is 
true  that  there  are  grades  of  animal  excellence,  and 
the  lower  are  likely  to  be  the  more  brutal ;  but  the 
higher  and  most  perfect  growth  is  not  only  compatible, 
but  frequently  found  in  association,  with  an  excess- 
of  evil  attributes.  In  short,  the  most  delicate  and 
efficient  instrument  may  be  put  to  the  worst  purposes. 
What  determines  the  event  ?  What  made  this  person 
with  the  highest  intellectual  organism  an  unscrupulous 
wrong-doer,  the  enemy  of  his  species,  and  a  discredit 
to  human  nature,  while  that  individual  with  a  physical 
organism  so  nearly  identical  that  science  can  detect  no 
difference  was  distinguished  by  characteristics  entirely 
opposite  ?  The  superficial  answer  to  this  crucial  inter- 
rogatory is :  circumstances,  education,  the  influence 
of  example,  opposition,  health — these,  in  short,  the 
environments,  made  the  difference.  The  rejoinder 
will  not  stand  the  test  of  experience.  Let  any  one 
turn  over  in  his  memory  the  histories  of  lives  he  has 
observed.     The  most  tenderly  nurtured  go   astray. 


Failings,  7 

while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  neglected  and,  as  it 
would  seem,  demoralised  by  "circumstances,"  rise 
above  the  accident  of  associated  evil  influences,  to 
attain  the  highest  moral  growth. 

The  appeal  against  materialism  lies  to  the  instinct 
of  common  sense.  If  mind  were  the  mere  outcome 
of  matter,  science  would  long  since  have  discovered 
some  tolerably  constant  relation  between  peculiarities 
of  physical  development  and  manifestations  of  cha- 
racter ;  whereas  every  step  onward  in  the  progress  of 
research  tends  to  disprove  the  existence  of  any  certain 
dependency  or  connection  between  morals  and  matter. 
Even  such  links  as  compose  the  stock-in-trade  of  the 
physiognomist  and  phrenologist  are  shown  to  be 
illusory,  except  in  so  far  as  they  may  be  the  effects, 
rather  than  the  causes,  of  character,  and  are  produced 
by  culture — witness  the  effects  of  education  on  facial 
expression  in  the  case  of  criminals.  The  theory  of  a 
criminal  conformation  of  cranium  has  been  abandoned 
like  the  silly  affectation  of  being  able  to  detect  an 
offender  by  his  "  hang-dog  "  or  "  murderous  "  look. 

"  Failings "  must  be  studied  in  the  light  of  the 
lessons  these  facts  and  considerations  combine  to 
teach.  The  moral  question  involved  is  one  of  respon- 
sibility for  the  use  each  individual  may  make  of  the 
brain-power  allotted  to  him.  The  neglect  to  employ 
gifts   and   capacities  is   as  grave  an  error,  from  an 


8  Co7nmon  Mind-Troubles. 

ethical  point  of  view,  as  their  application  to  a  bad 
purpose.  The  servant  who  buried  his  talent  in  the 
earth  was  held  accountable  for  the  failure  to  use  it, 
and  thereby  increase  its  value.  The  parable  sets  forth 
a  truth  of  the  highest  practical  interest.  We  are 
responsible  for  the  development,  by  use,  of  the  facul- 
ties vouchsafed  to  us.  If  they  are  allowed  to  remain 
in  abeyance,  or  a  rudimentary  state,  we  are  to  blame 
for  the  deficiencies  and  the  failings  to  which  this 
neglect  gives  rise,  and  are  without  excuse.  The  obli- 
gation to  act  up  to  the  level  of  known  duty  cannot  be 
avoided.  A  ^^  failing  "  is  an  act  of  contempt  for  the 
law  of  development  by  use.  It  is  disobedience  to  an 
understood  command.  The  fact  that  it  is  recognised 
makes  a  failing  an  offence.  There  may  be  short- 
coming in  the  performance  of  a  good  resolve.  Few, 
if  any,  merely  human  efforts  are  entirely  successful ; 
but  the  failure  which  occurs  when  an  endeavour  is 
made  in  the  energy  of  a  resolute  and  well-aimed  pur- 
pose is  not  so  much  a  fault  as  an  insufficiency.  The 
rising  tide  reaches  its  highest  level  by  successive 
efforts.  Self-improvement  is  effected  in  the  same 
fashion.  The  motive  power  of  persistent  good  endea- 
vour is  accumulative — ever  advancing  like  the  great 
tidal  wave  of  the  ocean — though  the  ground  is  con- 
quered by  short  and  seemingly  only  half-successful 
advances. 


Failings.  9 

Failings,  however,  as  we  are  now  regarding  them, 
are  excused  faults  in  the  character  which  the  indi- 
vidual makes  no  serious  effort  to  repair.  Some  defects, 
as  we  have  seen,  are  inherited,  and  upon  them  it  is 
the  custom  to  bestow  great  commiseration  and  little 
blame.  Now,  in  truth,  these  are  the  least  pardonable, 
because,  if  they  are  known  to  have  been  transmitted 
from  parent  to  child^  the  latter  has,  generally,  the 
advantage  of  an  example,  ever  present  to  memory,  by 
which  to  correct  his  personal  deficiencies.  If  the 
^* failing"  be  a  vicious  propensity,  he  can  recall  its 
hideousness,  and  thus  stimulate  will  and  conscience 
to  aid  him  in  eradicating  the  fault.  If  it  be  some 
form  of  deficiency,  as  indolence,  lack  of  perseverance, 
want  of  principle,  or  the  like,  he  can  study,  as  in  the 
pages  of  history,  the  evil  consequences  entailed  by 
the  defect,  and  with  diligence  order  his  own  conduct 
in  better  courses.  Inherited  failings  are  the  least 
excusable.  Even  the  materialist,  who  claims  them  as 
the  fruit  of  physical  peculiarities,  must  concede  that 
by  special  culture  they  can  be  remedied,  the  healthy 
organism  being  susceptible  of  increased  development 
in  any  particular  direction  when  the  proper  stimuli 
are  intelligently  apphed  with  a  view  to  its  improve- 
ment. The  apologist  for  failings  which  have  been 
inherited  can  find  no  comfort  in  the  philosophy  of 
materialism. 


lo  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

Failings  which  are  peculiar  to  the  individual  may  be 
less  easy  to  detect,  and  the  subject  of  these  defects  is, 
in  a  measure,  dependent  upon  experience  and  the  mo- 
nitions of  those  around  him  for  the  information  needed 
to  correct  them.  This  should  keep  the  wise  teachable 
and  apt  to  profit  by  the  lessons  life  is  ever  reading  lor 
their  instruction.  A  self-reliant  spirit  is  manly,  and 
therefore  commendable  ;  a  self-sufficient  spirit  is  un- 
reasonable^ and  therefore  despicable.  It  is  strange  how 
few  of  us  grow  really  wiser  as  we  grow  older.  The  work 
of  self-improvement  is  seldom  commenced  until  forced 
upon  the  judgment  by  some  awakening  experience,, 
and  this  is  rarely  vouchsafed  until  the  ductile  period 
of  youth  has  gone  by.  Early  in  the  adult  age  of  man 
his  habits  become  rigidly  formulated,  and  failings  are 
then  hard  to  mend.  A  world  of  unhappiness  and  dis- 
appointment might  be  spared  the  later  years  of  life 
if  the  young  would  be  warned  to  begin  the  business 
of  training  the  character  before  it  is  firmly  set  in  the 
mould  of  circumstances,  with  all  the  coarse  elements 
— ^inherited  and  contracted — uneliminated,  and  the 
errors  of  inconsistency  and  imperfect  development 
uncorrected. 

It  is  in  the  period  of  youth  and  adolescence  that 
the  mind  may  be  most  hopefully  cultivated  and  the 
moral  character  intelligently  formed.  No  greater  mis- 
take can  be  made  by  a  young  and  vigorous  mind  than 


Failings,  1 1 

to  treat  the  faculty  of  reason  and  the  instinct  of  moral 
judgment  as  parts  of  the  being  which  may  be  left  to 
their  own  devices.  The  young  man  bestows  some 
thought  on  his  muscular  system — he  trains  his  eye, 
cultivates  his  ear,  and  takes  credit  for  prudence  when 
he  strives  to  develop  the  vigour  and  to  foster  the 
healthy  growth  of  his  body.  Is  it  wise — ^nay,  is  it  not 
rather  the  worst  of  folly  and  shortsightedness — to 
neglect  the  ordinary  development  of  those  higher 
powers  which  man  possesses  in  a  more  exalted  degree 
than  any  of  the  lower  animals  ?  Taking  care  for  the 
body  while  the  mind  is  neglected  is  the  worst  of 
failings — the  most  calamitous  and  the  least  excusable. 


DEFECTS   OF   MEMORY. 

The  faculty  of  remembering  is  not  one  of  the  higher 
intellectual  powers  or  functions.  Animals  far  below 
man  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  exhibit  a  capacity  for 
recollecting  their  associations  with  places,  persons,  and 
events  after  a  long  interval  of  time  has  elapsed ;  and 
even  idiots,  with  slow  and  imperfect  apprehension,  are 
not  unfrequently  seen  to  perform  what  must,  in  their 
condition,  be  regarded  as  feats  of  memory.  Never- 
theless, loss  or  serious  impairment  of  the  faculty  will 
produce  grave  mental  disability;  and  when  either  of 
these  evils  occurs,  in  the  case  of  an  individual  who 
has  previously  given  no  indication  of  deficiency  or 
defect,  the  change  may  reveal  ground  for  uneasiness, 
and,  in  every  case,  must  create  anxiety  to  discover  the 
cause. 

Memory,  using  the  term  in  its  popular  signification, 
is  made  up  of  two  powers  or  faculties — that  of  fixing 
or  retaining  a  subject-thought  in  the  mind,  and  that  of 
recalling  it  at  will.  It  is  a  common  experience  to  feel 
conscious  of  knowing  a  thing — for  example,  the  name 


Defects  of  Memory,  13 

of  a  person  or  place,  the  whereabouts  of  a  missing 
article,  the  date  or  order  of  sequence  of  an  event — 
but  to  be  unable  to  recall  the  information  in  detail. 
Either  of  these  powers  may  be  at  fault  in  a  case  of 
"  loss  of  memory ;"  and  it  is  of  the  highest  practical 
moment  to  ascertain  which  of  the  two  is  defective, 
not  only  with  a  view  to  repair,  if  that  should  be  pos- 
sible, but  because  a  clue  may  be  discovered  to  the 
precise  nature  and  cause  of  the  malady. 

The  retention  or  fixing  of  ideas  is  very  much  a 
matter  of  habit.  There  are,  doubtless,  differences  as 
to  the  strength  and  clearness  of  the  original  perception 
which  will  affect  the  quality  of  the  impression.  Some 
persons  do  not  receive  an  idea  as  rapidly  as  others, 
and  many  who  display  the  greatest  celerity  of  appre- 
hension seem  satisfied  with  simply  taking  up  an  idea 
for  a  moment,  and  letting  it  drop  instantly  afterwards. 
Those  who  exhibit  this  peculiarity  do  not,  in  fact,, 
appropriate  the  object,  and  convert  it  into  a  subject ; 
they  seize  on  it  as  a  porter  grasps  a  package  with 
which  he  has  no  concern — by  the  cord  or  corners,  or 
in  any  way  most  convenient.  Some  persons  learn  by 
ear,  and  catch  the  jingle  of  word-sounds,  not  their 
meaning.  Children  who  have  a  special  facility  for 
picking  up  verses  are  seldom  really  quick  in  study,  or 
retentive.  Others  acquire  information  by  the  eye ; 
anything  they  can  picture  or  dispose  in  a  particulai 


14  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

order  or  place — for  example,  a  square — is  appropriated. 
Such  minds  are  generally  endowed  with  a  lively  per- 
ception of  form  and  proportion.  A  third  class  of 
learners  are  dependent  on  the  power  of  connecting 
scraps  of  information  for  their  retention  of  facts  ;  they 
seem  to  be  perpetually  making  a  piece  of  patchwork, 
and  anything  that  can  be  tacked  into  a  notch,  or  on 
to  the  extremity,  of  the  work  in  hand  can  be  received, 
while  what  is  not  capable  of  being  so  placed  is  sacri- 
ficed, however  valuable.  All  these,  and  many  similar, 
methods  are  peculiarities  in  the  way  of  receiving  im- 
pressions or  ideas;  but,  speaking  generally,  they  do 
no  more  than  lodge  the  subject  in  the  outer  chamber 
of  the  mind,  from  which  it  may  be  swept  by  the  first 
rough  wind,  or  roughly  ejected  on  the  slightest  internal 
commotion. 

When  therefore  the  memory  becomes  a  blank,  or 
seems  to  have  suddenly  shifted  and  lost  its  cargo,  it  is 
necessary,  in  the  absence  of  any  significant  symptom 
of  disease,  to  inquire  whether  what  has  happened  is 
not  simply  the  discharge  of  useless  lumber.  This  sort 
of  experience  occurs  not  uncommonly  just  as  a  youth 
has  completed  that  which  is,  under  a  serious  mis- 
apprehension of  facts,  called  his  "  education ;"  and 
many  a  poor  fellow  has  been  driven  to  distraction, 
hounded  on  by  professional  harpies,  with  the  dread 
'that  he  is  sufiering  from  some  terrible  and  life-blighting 


Defects  of  Memory.  15 

defect.  What  has  taken  place  is  the  sudden  heeling 
over  of  a  deck-laden  craft,  with  the  discharge  of  her 
laboriously  collected  but  badly  stowed  cargo  into  the 
sea.  If  the  vessel  rights  herself  quickly,  it  is  no  bad 
thing  to  have  got  rid  of  the  incumbrance,  although  it 
may  be  provoking  to  reflect  that  it  is  too  late  to  put 
back  into  port  and  load  again.  The  only  expedient  is 
to  haul  on  board  some  of  the  more  useful  portions  of 
the  floating  wreck  and  stow  them  in  the  hold.  A 
break-down  of  this  nature  happens  every  now  and 
again,  and  will  occur  while  the  practice  of  "cram- 
ming "  boys  at  school  and  at  college  for  "  competitive  " 
examinations  continues  to  find  favour.  It  was  a  so- 
cially and  mentally  mischievous  thought  that  notion  of 
"  competitive  tests ;"  and  among  the  suflerers  are  not 
only  the  many  youths  and  young  men  who  experience 
the  mind-panic  to  which  we  are  alluding,  but  the  mul- 
titude of  overtaxed  and  weakened  brains  that  are 
abandoned  as  incapable — among  them  some  of  the  best 
for  real  work — by  competitive  teachers  and  trainers  of 
the  young,  who  conform  their  educational  methods  to 
the  spirit  and  fashion  of  the  day. 

When  loss  of  memory  occurs  in  the  manner  indi- 
cated, whenever  it  happens  soon  after  leaving  school, 
on  the  completion  of  any  great  eflbrt,  or  at  the 
moment  when  the  mind  is  for  the  first  time  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  real  business  of  life,  instead  of 


1 6  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

giving  way  to  crazy  alarm  the  victim  of  this  misfortune 
should  set  to  work  to  repair  the  loss  caused  by  the 
accident,  not  by  repeating  the  errors  of  a  faulty  edu- 
cational process,  but  by  developing  his  faculty  of 
retention  by  honest  and  patient  work  in  a  new  and 
healthy  direction.  In  short,  one  half  the  so-called 
cases  of  *^  loss  of  memory  "  are  simply  the  break-down 
of  a  training  which  has  been  unnatural.  The  circum- 
stance that  the  faculty  of  remembering  seems  to  be 
itself  impaired  by  the  catastrophe  is  not  in  the  least 
surprising,  because,  in  addition  to  the  immediate 
effects  of  the  shock,  there  is  the  discovery  that  the 
power  of  retention  is  in  truth  wanting.  The  real 
faculty  of  memory  has  not  been  developed  by  the 
system  adopted,  and  the  untrained  mind  has  to  be 
cultivated  anew.  Only  what  has  been  thoroughly 
learned  can  be  perfectly  remembered,  and  no  process 
other  than  that  which  brings  the  natural  faculty  of 
knowledge  into  active  exercise  can  perform  the  true 
functions  of  memory,  or  is  worthy  to  be  so  called. 

The  fixing  of  subject-matters  in  the  mind  depends 
directly  on  the  manner  in  which  they  are  received 
and  dealt  with  in  thought,  immediately  after  they 
have  been  appropriated,  while  the  power  of  re-col- 
lecting the  ideas  or  impressions  put  away  in  the  mind 
is  the  outcome  of  an  orderly  method  of  arrangement, 
and  for  this  reason  always  susceptible  of  development. 


Defects  of  Memory.  17 

Just  as  an  orderly  but  forgetful  person  may  deposit  an. 
article  carefully  in  a  suitable  place  and  afterwards  be 
wholly  unable  to  find  it,  so  a  mind  may  have  treasured 
up  an  idea  thoroughly  and  safely,  but  be  at  a  loss  to 
recover  it  when  v/anted  in  conversation  or  thought. 
It  is  the  fashion  to  assert  that  in  such  a  case  there 
must  have  been  something  amiss  in  the  process  of 
"putting  away."  There  may  have  been  a  defect  in 
this  stage,  but  that  is  not  a  necessary  inference  from 
the  fact  of  forgetting.  The  fault  is  quite  as  often  in 
the  manner  of  looking  for  an  object  or  an  idea  as  in 
placing  it.  Very  much  depends  on  the  knowledge  an 
individual  possesses  of  his  intellectual  property.  If 
he  is  in  the  habit,  so  to  say,  of  frequently  taking  out 
his  treasures  of  information  and  his  ideas  and  examin- 
ing and  dusting  them,  he  will  probably  be  able  to  find 
them  readily  when  required. 

It  is  doubtless  very  unscientific  to  employ  such  a 
simile,  because,  as  everybody  knows,  or  thinks  he 
knows,  ideas  are  registered  by  the  combination,  or 
some  change  in  the  constitution,  of  cells  in  the  cere- 
bral tissue  of  the  brain ;  but  for  plain  folk  the  notion 
of  "placing"  and  "finding"  ideas  at  will  is  more 
intelligible  than  the  jargon  of  scientists,  and  possibly 
fully  as  accurate.  The  one  point  to  make  clear  is 
that  inability  to  remember  is  as  often  a  fault  in  method 
as  a  defect  of  power ;  and  every  sufferer  should  exhaust 

c 


1 8  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

all  the  milder  and  more  comprehensible  hypotheses 
of  his  difficulty  before  he  worries  himself  with  the 
graver  and  less  easily  remedied.  To  throw  a  few 
practical  hints  together,  I  may  jot  down  the  following 
results  of  experience  and  observation. 

It  is  seldom  any  good  to  goad  the  memory  roughly 
in  a  moment  of  forgetfulness.  Instead  of  making  a 
violent  and  distressing  effort  to  find  the  right  word,  if 
it  does  not  suggest  itself,  think  of  another  that  will  do 
as  well;  possibly  the  defaulting  term  will  thus  be 
recovered  by  association;  if  not,  another  may  be  sub- 
stituted. It  is  annoying  to  forget  a  familiar  name  or 
term;  but  the  feeling  of  chagrin,  and  the  collateral 
disturbance  caused  at  the  moment,  are  little  likely  to 
strengthen  the  memory.  An  idea,  term,  or  phrase, 
which  has  not  quickly  responded  to  the  call  of  the  will, 
should  be  made  the  subject  of  special  thought  and 
examined  at  close  quarters — in  fact,  learnt — when  it  is 
found.  In  this  way  the  memory  may  be  strengthened, 
whereas  by  conflict  at  the  critical  moment  of  forgetful- 
ness it  will  be  weakened.  It  is  useless^  and  worse,  to 
resort  to  what  are  called  technical  memories.  The 
inducement  to  adopt  formulae  of  facts  or  figures  is 
very  strong  when  the  pressure  of  work  to  be  "got  up" 
in  a  given  time  is  great ;  but  the  practice  is  ruinous  to 
the  faculty  of  thought,  because  it  not  only  throws  it  out 
of  use,  but  cripples  it 


Defects  of  Memory.  1 9 

The  way  to  fix  a  subject  in  the  mind  is  to  master 
it  thoroughly  under  all  its  aspects,  so  that  the  Reason 
and  Judgment  may  be  familiar  with  it,  each  in  its 
province  appropriating  some  special  fact  concerning  it. 
Real  knowledge  of  a  subject  implies  its  being  brought 
in  detail  to  the  direct  cognisance  of  each  of  the  leading 
powers  or  faculties  of  the  mind  in  turn,  so  that  if  one 
forgets,  the  others  will  recall,  it  People  take  only  a 
passing  glance  at  an  object,  and  wonder  they  cannot 
recollect  it.  The  faculties  differ  in  their  power  of 
retention.  In  some  minds  Reason  is  the  most  highly 
gifted  with  the  power  of  taking  in,  or  perhaps  finding, 
subjects.  When  this  is  the  case,  the  individual  re- 
members only  what  he  has  reasoned  about ;  and,  if  he 
has  forgotten  anything,  he  must  search  it  out  and 
recover  it  by  a  process  of  reasoning,  or  it  will  be  lost 
Every  thoughtfiil  mind  should  try  to  ascertain  which 
of  its  constituent  faculties  is  the  most  effective  in  this 
work  and  train  it  for  the  purpose.  Half  the  folk  who 
go  through  life  bemoaning  their  want  of  memory  have 
excellent  faculties  ready  for  the  business  of  recollec- 
tion, but  from  ignorance  or  inattention  persist  in 
imposing  the  task  on  the  most  incompetent;  for 
example,  striving  to  remember  by  the  ear  when  sight 
is  their  best  remembrancer,  or  trusting  to  the  special 
senses  when  the  reasoning  faculty  has  special  fitness 
for  the  function.     Memory  is  not  so  much  a  faculty  as 

c  2 


ao  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

a  function,  which  may  be  performed  by  either,  or 
several,  of  the  powers  of  mind ;  but  these  require  to 
be  specially  cultivated. 

It  follows  from  what  has  been  said  that  "  defects  of 
memory  "  are  of  very  diverse  natures,  and  need  to  be 
closely  investigated  before  any  general  conclusion  is 
drawn  from  the  mere  fact  of  partial  impairment 
or  even  total  failure.  Some  of  the  phenomena  of 
disease  are  extraordinary.  There  may  be  loss  of 
power  to  remember  the  occurrences  of  a  particular 
period  of  life,  near  or  remote.  This  form  of  malady 
is — in  the  absence  of  special  brain  disease— generally 
more  closely  connected  with  the  function  of  apprehen- 
sion than  with  that  of  recollection;  the  least  well- 
appropriated  facts  are  those  forgotten.  Again,  there 
may  be  failure  with  respect  to  certain  classes  of  sub- 
jects— for  example,  dates  and  figures — or  the  defect 
may  be  limited  even  to  certain  numbers.  Often  when 
this  happens  there  has  been,  in  former  years,  either 
excessive  activity  with  regard  to  the  particular  subjects 
of  thought  which  are,  as  it  were,  effaced  from  the 
memory,  or  they  were  never  thoroughly  mastered. 
Some  scientists  explain  these  peculiarities  by  the  hypo- 
thesis that  certain  congeries  of  corpuscles  in  the  brain 
have  been  destroyed.  It  may  be  so  ;  but  the  circum- 
stance that  occasionally  the  whole  blank  is  refilled,  as 
though  by  an  electric  shock,  would  seem  to  show  that 


Defects  of  Memory.  a  i 

they  are  rather  thrown  out  of  the  vital  circuit  for  a 
while  by  some  diversion  or  interruption  of  the  current. 
The  hypothesis  of  science  is  obviously  susceptible  ot 
this  interpretation  of  the  facts.  Any  cause  or  state 
which  impairs  the  integrity  of  the  circulation  of  blood 
through  a  part  of  the  brain,  or  disturbs  the  rhythm  of 
nerve  energy,  may  impair  the  memory;  and  this  is 
why  loss  of  memory  or  disorder  of  the  function  comes 
to  possess  grave  interest. 

It  is,  however,  important  to  disabuse  the  mind  of 
the  mischievous  impression  that  failure  of  memory 
must  needs  be  a  sign  of  disease,  whereas  it  may  be 
the  consequence  of  defective  training  or  overloading. 
Meanwhile  it  is  necessary  to  realise  that  probably  no 
early  indication  of  brain  disturbance  is  likely  to  be 
more  significant  than  this  mental  peculiarity.  The  way 
to  test  the  symptom  subjectively  is  to  cast  about  for 
any  possible  cause  of  bodily  weakness — anything  that 
is  likely  to  have  impoverished  the  blood,  or  lowered 
the  tone  of  the  system — such  as  loss  of  appetite,  or 
deficiency  of  nourishment,  either  in  respect  of  quantity 
or  quality,  the  abuse  of  stimulants,  or  excess  of  any 
kind,  which  produces  depression  after  temporary  ex- 
citement, loss  of  sleep,  undue  bodily  or  mental  labour, 
constitutional  disease,  in  short  anything  which  will 
weaken  or  exhaust.  If  a  cause  is  discovered,  it  must, 
if  practicable^  be  instantly  removed,  and  the  effect 


22  Common  Mind-Troubles, 

watched.  If  no  serious  harm  has  been  done,  and  the 
real  source  of  the  mischief  has  been  discovered  and 
removed,  the  brain  will  resume  its  normal  condition, 
slowly  perhaps,  but  sufficiently  soon  to  show  that  the 
true  method  of  treatment  has  been  adopted. 

These  cases  of  loss  of  memory  are  nearly  all 
amenable  to  self-help,  and  while  the  physician  may 
fail,  and  the  empiricist  do  dire  mischief  with  his 
"  opinions  "  and  his  drugs,  the  intelligent  sufferer  can 
cure  himself.  The  golden  maxim  of  health,  and  the 
precept  of  self-recovery,  is  capable  of  expression  in 
one  word,  "  Order."  This  is  the  universal  law  of 
natural  life.  It  governs  society,  and  it  must  control 
the  individual.  Tested  by  this  standard,  all  that  is 
right,  true,  moral;  and  excellent  in  conduct  will  be 
readily  distinguishable  from  the  wrong,  the  false,  the- 
unholy,  and  the  despicable.  Life  itself,  in  its  integrity, 
is  orderly  action,  and  every  defect  of  life,  every  form 
of  disease,  all  failure  whether  of  body  or  mind — and 
failure  of  memory  among  the  multitude  of  unnatural 
phenomena — is  the  fruit  and  consequence  of  a  lack  of 
order.  In  its  lighter  manifestations  defect  of  memory^ 
is  due  to  the  disorderly  management  of  thought ;  in 
its  graver  forms  it  is  the  consequence  of  disorder  in 
the  nutrition  and  action  of  the  brain. 


CONFUSIONS   OF   THOUGHT. 

To  become  confused  in  thinking  is  a  common-place 
experience,  but  it  is  often  the  cause  of  great  dis- 
comfort, and  when  of  frequent  occurrence  begets  the 
fear  of  permanent  derangement.  Sometimes  the 
thoughts  seem  to  crowd  in  on  the  mind,  Uke  a  pack 
of  wolves,  with  furious  rush  and  almost  savage  im- 
petuosity, while  the  consciousness  is  scared,  and 
helpless  to  resist  the  onslaught  or  re-estabHsh  order. 
In  this  condition  of  affairs  the  mental  instrument  or 
organism,  the  part  with  which  we  think,  is  weakened 
either  by  disease  of  the  body  affecting  the  mind,  as 
when  a  person  is  struck  down  with  fever  or  any  other 
malady  producing  wild  delirium ;  or  by  the  exhaustion 
following  continuous  strain  in  a  particular  direction, 
as  when  the  thoughts  are  fixed  too  long  on  some 
subject  of  anxiety  or  perplexity.  This  state  is  also 
apt  to  occur  when  the  blood  is  impoverished,  and  the 
brain  is  pressed  to  work  without  sufficient  nourish- 
ment, or  cheated  to  use  up  and  exhaust,  in  its  ordinary 
business  by  the  abuse  of  alcohol  and  other  stimulants. 


24  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

the  strength  Nature  designs  to  be  stored  for  a  time  ot 
sickness  or  extremity. 

The  confusion  that  takes  the  form  of  violent  dis- 
order of  thought  is  nearly  always  due  to  a  physical — 
that  is,  a  bodily — cause,  and  must  be  met  by  measures 
adapted  to  the  improvement  of  the  general  health. 
Sometimes  the  evil  may  be  cured  by  a  judicious 
alteration  in  the  character  of  the  food,  and  the  avoid- 
ance of  drinks  that  give  energy  for  the  moment  at  the 
cost  of  collapse  afterwards.  A  new  order  of  meals,  a 
totally  different,  though  equally,  or  more,  nutritious, 
diet ;  longer,  or  occasionally  less  sleep,  may  inaugurate 
a  better  state  of  matters ;  but  often  it  takes  more  than 
this  to  mend  the  mischief  Change  of  scene  and  / 
complete  diversion  of  thought  into  fresh  channels  may 
be  necessary.  Nearly  always  there  is  some  potent, 
though  hidden,  perhaps  unsuspected,  cause  at  work 
undermining  or  disorganising  the  bodily,  and  indirectly 
the  mental  strength. 

In  another  condition,  somewhat  resembling  that 
already  described,  but  essentially  differing  from  it, 
there  is  an  inroad  of  thoughts,  less  like  ravening 
wolves  than  silly  sheep,  that  seem  to  come  tumbling 
over  each  other  in  sheer  stupidity.  The  sensation  is 
rather  plaguing  than  appalling,  but  it  is  wondrously 
annoying,  and,  if  not  remedied,  may  in  the  long  run 
prove  fully  as  troublesome,  and  even  disastrous,  as  the 


Confusions  of  Thought,  25 

more  vehement  malady  to  which  we  have  alluded.  In 
some  instances  there  is  a  considerable  element  of  the 
grotesque  in  this  experience,  and  the  possessor  of  a 
mind  so  disordered  passes  for  a  wit ;  but  the  humour 
is  maudlin,  and  the  current  is  uncertain;  he  breaks 
down  suddenly  in  his  play  of  pleasantries,  and  the 
watchful  observer  can  detect  the  signs  of  conscious 
weakness  and  inability  to  revive  the  unnatural  gaiety 
of  a  false  state.  When  there  is  no  conscious  humour 
in  the  whirl  of  thoughts,  it  may  be  simply  worrying 
or  distressing,  as  when  the  mind  longs  to  be  at  rest, 
"  if  it  were  only  for  a  short  half-hour ;"  or  is  earnestly 
desirous  of  fixing  itself  on  some  topic — perhaps  one  of 
serious  or  even  solemn  concern — but  cannot  comman  1 
the  attention. 

Sufferers  from  this  form  of  confusion  go  on  for 
years,  harassed  and  exhausted  by  the  turmoil  of  living 
in  a  crowd  and  din  of  thoughts  from  which  escape 
seems  impossible.  The  disorder — like  the  rapid  pass- 
ing of  scenery  as  one  is  borne  along  a  line  of  railway 
at  high  speed,  like  the  ceaseless  rush  of  water,  like  the 
swarming  of  bees — pursues  its  victim  even  into  the 
realm  of  sleep.  Of  course  persons  who  are  so  affected 
do  sleep,  and  the  brain  rests,  or  they  would  not  be 
able  to  go  on  year  after  year  with  impunity ;  but  they 
have  none  of  the  comforting  sensations  produced  by 
natural  repose ;  they  feel  awake  and  worried,  or  be- 


26  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

wildered  up  to  the  last  moment  of  consciousness,  and 
they  rise,  without  any  sense  of  being  refreshed,  to  a 
state  of  weariness  which  ill  befits  them  for  the  struggles 
and  anxieties  of  another  day. 

This  is  a  /^^/^^-disturbance,  in  contradistinction  ta 
that  indicated  above,  although  in  a  large  proportion 
of  instances  the  state  was  first  established  by  the 
irritation  set  up  in  the  course  of  some  bodily  disease  ; 
or  it  has  become  confirmed — so  to  say,  stereotyped  on 
the  brain — by  prolonged  physical  suffering.  For  the 
time  being,  whether  it  be  brief  or  long,  the  mind  is 
incapable  of  acting  as  its  own  master,  and  is  practi- 
cally a  mere  piece  of  machinery  for  making  the 
simplest  impressions  perceptible  to  the  consciousness, 
without  order  or  judgment,  and  with  little  or  no  power 
of  distinguishing  between  the  pictures  derived  directly 
from  the  external  world  through  the  senses,  and  those 
that  come  tumbling  out  of  the  recesses  of  the  memory 
as  though  some  mental  house-cleaning  process  were 
on  hand,  and  the  whole  establishment  in  the  direst 
confusion.  The  faculty  of  "  thinking  "  seems  to  be  in 
abeyance,  and  the  consciousness  is  a  forced  spectator 
of  the  disorder  on  its  own  premises,  powerless  alike  to 
restrain  or  re-arrange. 

The  cure  for  this  state  of  mind  is  generally  com- 
plicated and  too  often  impracticable.  The  cause 
must  be  removed,  and  as  this   is   not  unfrequently 


Confusions  of  Thought.  27 

inseparable  from  the  mode  of  life,  the  personal  state^ 
and  entangling  circumstances  of  the  sufferer,  to  insist 
on  the  first  condition  of  recovery  is  like  commanding 
the  rising  tide  to  retreat.  That  is  why  so  many 
persons  struggle  on  year  after  year  under  this  form  of 
confusion;  and,  unless  relief  is  afforded  by  the  course 
ot  events,  weak  minds  finally  succumb  to  the  worry 
without  respite.  Anything  that  will  break  the  mono- 
tonous rhythm  of  a  life  thus  wearing  itself  away  may 
be  the  means  of  recovery.  Sometimes  domestic 
calamities  are  blessings  in  disguise,  and  in  after-times 
there  is  cause  to  look  back  with  gratitude  on  what  at 
the  moment  of  its  infliction  appeared  an  overwhelming 
disaster.  Of  course  the  pleasurable  reliefs  are  the 
most  to  be  desired,  and  they  accomplish  a  cure  with 
the  least  risk  and  greatest  celerity.  Meanwhile  it  is 
noteworthy  that  minds  labouring  under  this  peculiar 
form  of  weakness,  and  seemingly  ever  on  the  brink  of 
ruin,  are  not  especially  prone  to  be  crushed  by  any 
great  sorrow  or  to  be  unseated  by  a  sudden  shock. 
Their  peril  is  that  of  exhaustion  by  the  worry  that 
haunts  them ;  in  other  respects  they  are  as  strong  as 
the  average  of  intellects,  and  hence  the  good  prospect 
of  cure  that  lies  in  the  path  of  proper  treatment, 
whenever,  happily,  that  is  practicable. 

Next  to  the  removal  of  the  cause  of  this  mind-state, 
and  sometimes,  though  rarely,  successful  without  its 


28  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

removal,  is  the  inspiration  of  new  vitality  into  the 
Will.  By  a  strong  effort  of  the  judgment  the  mind  in 
certain  instances  reclaims  control  of  its  own  territory. 
This  is  a  noble  triumph  of  "  self-help "  at  which  all, 
especially  those  who  are  unable  to  shake  off  the  coil 
of  crushing  circumstances,  should  aim,  and  upon 
which  the  intelligent  mind  should  set  and  centre  its 
remaining  strength.  There  is  a  wonderful  faculty  of 
self-development  in  every  part  of  the  being  of  man, 
whether  mental  or  physical,  and  each  faculty  grows  by 
use.  The  effort  which  succeeds  in  restoring  order,  or 
keeping  the  rushing  thoughts  disentangled  if  not 
orderly,  does  more  than  passing  good ;  it  reconquers 
some  portion  of  the  province  of  mind  from  the  rebel 
crew  who  run  riot  and  threaten  to  perpetuate  the 
confusion  that  reigns  within. 

The  best  method  of  procedure  is  to  busy  the  faculty 
of  thinking  with  some  unaccustomed  topic — the  way 
to  do  something,  or  the  cause  and  reason  of  an  un- 
explained phenomenon.  It  is  generally  useless  to  try 
to  mend  the  confusion  by  a  direct  effort  to  control  the 
thoughts.  The  sovereignty  of  the  will  can  only  be 
re-established  by  an  exercise  of  independent  authority 
acting  at  first  in  a  new  sphere.  For  example  ;  let  the 
sufferer  select  a  subject  and  manner  of  thought  of 
which  he  has  no  previous  experience.  The  desultory 
thinker   may  commence   the  study  of  mathematics; 


Confusions  of  Thought.  29 

while  the  mind  accustomed  to  figures  should  be  en- 
grossed with  history  or  fiction.  In  any  case^  and 
whatever  the  subject  selected,  the  exercise  which  is  to 
be  remedial  must  be  undertaken  as  a  task^  a  certain 
number  of  pages  set  down  to  be  read  or  transcribed^ 
whether  the  attention  is  interested  or  not.  Persever- 
ance, and  a  renewal  of  the  effort  at  stated  times,  say 
once  or  twice  a  day,  always  as  a  duty  imposed  by  the 
will,  and  enforced  by  the  same  authority,  generally 
succeed.  If  in  process  of  time  the  mastery  is  so  far 
recovered  that  a  complete  train  of  reasoning  can  be 
pursued  without  irritation,  the  gain  will  be  considerable. 
The  confusion  of  which  we  are  now  speaking  may 
be  experienced  in  any  degree,  from  that  occasional 
loss  of  the  command  of  thought  which  begins  in 
desultory  thinking  or  reverie,  to  an  utter  lack  of  any 
power  to  do  more  than  lie  at  the  mercy  of  thoughts 
which  neither  are  bidden  nor  can  be  dismissed.  The 
points  to  make  clear  are  (i)  that  the  condition  is 
essentially  mind-debility,  and  (2)  that  it  has  been 
brought  about  either  by  weakness  of  the  controlling 
power,  or  rebellion  of  those  agents  of  the  conscious- 
ness whose  function  it  is  to  perform  the  duty  of 
impression  receivers  and  carriers,  to  bring  the  inner 
self  into  relation  with  the  outer  world,  and  inform  and 
affect  it  with  the  intelligence  of  events  transpiring 
around.     When  these  agents  are  not  under  discipline. 


30  Common  Mind-Troubles, 

they  come  rushing  into  the  presence  with  burdens  of 
all  descriptions — ^good,  bad,  and  worthless — and  heap 
them  on  the  mind,  with  no  regard  to  will,  order,  or 
memory. 

There  are  other  forms  of  confusion  of  thought 
which  might  be  particularised,  but  they  all  group 
under  one  or  other  of  the  two  broad  classes  I  have 
attempted  to  describe.  The  confusion  may  be  general 
or  partial,  impairing  the  thinking  powers  as  a  whole 
and  in  relation  to  every  variety  of  subject,  or  relating 
only  to  some.  It  may  apply  to  past  events,  categories 
of  names  and  numbers,  or  only  to  trains  of  reasoning 
in  which  something  has  to  be  "  thought  out,"  and  the 
mind  is  found  incapable.  These  are  points  of  dis- 
tinction of  great  interest  to  the  psychologist,  but 
scarcely  worth  the  attention  of  a  sufferer  who  is 
interested  to  get  rid  of  the  burden  rather  than  to 
examine  its  intimate  nature  and  construction.  Undue 
anxiety  about  the  subjective  symptoms  of  the  malady 
is  to  be  avoided;  and,  although  to  some  tempera- 
ments it  is  a  relief  to  understand  an  enemy,  little  is 
likely  to  be  gained  by  dwelling  upon  the  evil.  Better 
far  concentrate  effort  on  the  work  of  self-cure. 

Every  known  cause  of  weakness  must  be  eradicated 
from  the  habits  of  life ;  the  Will  is  therefore  the  first 
agent  in  the  task  of  recovery.  Regrets  are  useless, 
and  mere  wishes  will  be  vain.     "Resolutions"  and 


Confusions  of  Thought,  3 1 

**  intentions  "  are  generally  of  no  force.     The  resolves 
begotten  of  fear  are  the  least  trustworthy  of  all.     If 
the  mind  has  been  weakened  by  vicious  self-manage- 
ment, or  by  allowing  petty  annoyances  to   get  the 
better  of  the  judgment,  it  is  not  much  good  to  vow 
and  protest  amendment.   The  simplest  and  least  violent, 
or  demonstrative,  processes  of  persuasion  are  always  the 
best  in  dealing  with  self.     Never  mind  the  future,  and, 
as  far  as  possible,  forget  the  past.     Man  lives  in  the 
present,  and  this  matter  of  self-remedy  is  an  affair  of 
now.     It  is  because  we  find  the  sorrow  of  evil  courses 
to  be  an  immediate  experience  that  we  try  to  reform. 
The  conscious  misery  of  being  unable  to  command 
one's  own  thoughts  should  be  enough  to  make  any 
man  or  woman  anxious  to  regain  the  lost,  or  restore 
the  failing,  power  of  self-control.     To  accompHsh  this 
result,  the   authority  of  the   master-faculty  of  mind 
must  be   instantly  brought  into   action.      "  Why  is 
this   susceptibiHty   or   that   propensity  my   tyrant?" 
^*  Why  do  these  troubles  so  deeply  affect  me  ?  "    **  Why 
am  I  the  slave  of  a  particular  impulse  ?  "     These  are 
the   questions   the   Judgment  must   ask  itself;   and 
when  the  humiliating  answer  comes,  "I  have  neg- 
lected to  fortify  my  mind  against  these  annoyances," 
or,  **I   have   allowed   my  inclinations   to  run   away 
with  me,"  Will  should  re-assert  its   supremacy  with 
the  self-respect  becoming  a  faculty  which  was  destined 


32  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

to  command,  but,  through  error  or  indolence,  has 
sunk  to  obey. 

Those  who  allow  their  whole  being  to  engross 
itself  with  circumstances,  and  never  rise  above  the 
dead  level  of  surrounding  and  pressing  facts,  are 
always  likely  to  be  overwhelmed  by  the  afflictions 
of  the  life  that  absorbs  them.  The  road  is  ever 
rough  and  troublesome  to  those  who  tread  the  path 
with  eyes  bent  on  its  ruggedness  and  difficulties. 
It  is  sorry  work  tearing  through  the  brambles  with- 
out the  hope  of  rest  and  a  compensating  pleasure 
beyond,  and,  when  the  eyes  are  never  lifted  above 
the  jungle,  a  man  might,  for  all  mental  and  moral 
purposes,  as  well  grope  his  way  through  one  of  those 
dense  forests  where  the  light  of  day  never  penetrates 
and  the  air  is  stagnant  and  reeks  with  wild  decay. 
Those  who  are  void  of  any  hope  and  comfort  in  life 
except  that  which  they  can  pick  up  in  its  dark  re- 
cesses and  on  hard  flinty  roads  fall  an  easy  prey  to 
gloomy  and  plaguing  thoughts,  which  nothing  but 
a  better  and  higher  view  of  the  present  and  the 
future  can  amend. 

The  feelings  do  not  become  blunted  by  misfortune ; 
the  faculty  that  feels  grows  more  acutely  irritable  as 
its  peculiar  function  is  exercised  on  trifling  annoy- 
ances, until  at  length  the  whole  sensibility  becomes 
morbid  and  the  mind  diseased.     The  like  is  true  of 


Confusions  of  Thought.  33 

the  effect  produced  on  propensities  and  inclinations 
which  are  allowed  to  throw  off  their  allegiance  to  the 
authority  of  Judgment  and  Will.  Each  act  of  re- 
bellion confirms  the  spirit  of  revolt,  and  quickly  the 
unbridled  instinct  or  appetite — be  it  vanity,  or  the 
passion  for  pleasure^  or  anything  else — begins  to 
usurp  control  of  the  higher  faculties  it  has  deposed. 
In  process  of  time  it  obtains  the  mastery  of  the  mind 
itself,  and  the  individual  becomes  insane. 

This  is  the  painful  and  humiliating  history  of  many 
a  ruined  life.  The  evil  began  in  the  indulgence  of  a 
wanton,  because  undisciplined,  ambition  or  longing 
for  self-gratification.  The  licence  was  repeated  ;  and, 
as  a  spoilt  child,  the  aspiration,  whatever  it  may  have 
been,  became  importunate.  Before  long  the  Judg- 
ment ceased  to  be  consulted ;  next  the  Will  lost  the 
power  to  check ;  and  then,  growing  with  its  rebellion, 
the  insurgent  instinct  succeeded  in  subjugating  the 
faculties  of  mind  one  after  the  other  until  all  mental 
power  became  the  slave  of  the  tyrant,  and  the  errant 
forces  fell  to  destroying  each  other,  or  to  revolving 
round  a  single  "  fixed  idea." 

To  avert  this  mischief  there  is  only  one  possible  1 
remedy,  and  that  is  the  recovery  of  self-control.     Con- 
fusion  of  thoughts   is   disorder,   and   the   disorderly 
action  of  forces  which  are  endowed  with  the  highest 

D 


34  Common  Mind-  Troubles. 

powers  of  influence  for  good  or  evil  can  never  be  safe. 
The  wear  and  tear  of  mind  and  of  the  intellectual 
gear  is  self-destructive,  and  the  smallest  damage  to 
the  supreme  power  and  authority  of  the  Will  ought  to 
be  instantly  and  earnestly  repaired 


SLEEPLESSNESS    FROM 
THOUGHT 

Inability  to  stop  the  rush  or  flow  of  thoughts  often 
seems  to  be  the  cause  of  wakefulness  ;  but  it  may  be 
the  inabiUty  to  sleep  that  throws  the  brain  into  a  state 
of  worrying  excitement.  This  last  explanation  is  the 
more  probable,  because  the  thoughts  that  engross  or 
distress  the  mind  as  the  head  lies  sleepless  and  un- 
resting on  its  pillow  are  more  forcible,  vivid,  and, 
generally,  painful,  than  those  which  engross  the  atten- 
tion by  day.  In  part,  this  intensifying  of  thought  by 
night  is  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  exclusion  of  external 
objects  and  impressions.  The  mind  is,  as  it  were, 
thrown  in  on  itself,  and  left  a  prey  to  its  own  reflec- 
tions. There  is,  however,  more  in  the  exaggerated 
and  distorted  state  of  thought,  when  the  brain  will 
not  or  cannot  sleep,  than  mere  isolation  explains.  If 
the  mind  is  absorbed  or  engrossed  within  itself  by 
day,  when  there  is  no  question  of  sleep  or  sleepless- 
ness, however  oppressive  or  torturing  thought  may 
prove,  it  does  not  lose  the  faculty  of  'estimating  sorrows 

D    2 


35  Common  Mind-TroMbles. 

and  losses,  pains  and  gains,  by  comparing  them  with 
other  experiences ;  whereas,  it  is  one  of  the  disagree- 
able features  of  sleepless  thought,  that  the  most  • 
trifling  evils  and  causes  of  anxiety  assume  unnaturally 
vast  proportions,  so  that  what  would  occasion  no 
distress  by  day,  is  the  source  of  acute  suffering  or 
annoyance  at  night. 

From  these  and  other  circumstances  and  experiences 
it  may  be  concluded,  that  what  is  called  "  sleeplessness 
from  thought"  is,  in  fact,  a  state  considerably  more 
compHcated  and  unnatural  than  the  phrase  implies. 
It  is  a  condition  in  which  the  brain,  so  to  say,  stops 
short  on  the  way  to  sleep,  and  the  mind,  being  adrift 
from  its  moorings  to  firm  fact,  is  tossed  up  and  down^ 
and  to  and  fro ;  while,  ignorant  of  its  position,  it  still 
busies  itself  with  the  objects  on  shore,  until  their 
bearings  and  proportions  are  lost  or  confounded.  This 
is  why  those  who  are  habitually  sleepless  find  it  good 
policy  to  get  up  and  read  when  the  fit  of  wakefulness 
comes  on.  Not  only  does  the  act  of  reading  produce 
drowsiness,  but  the  mind  is  prevented  from  passing 
into  a  state  of  turmoil  so  distressing  and  injurious  as 
that  which  too  commonly  occurs  in  sleeplessness  from 
thought. 

The  loss  of  power  to  cast  off  the  burden  of  tiie 
day,  and  find  rest  in  unconsciousness  or  forgetfulness 
at  night,  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  personal  afflictions. 


Sleeplessness  from  Thought.  37 

Only  those  who  have  endured  it  know  how  terrible 
this  experience,  in  its  worst  form,  may  prove.  There 
is  no  escape  anywhere,  no  respite,  no — even  momen- 
tary— lessening  of  the  strain  on  the  mind,  when  sleep 
is  impossible  ;  and  the  worry  is  increased  when  the 
mind,  instead  of  finding  ease,  falls  into  a  state  in 
which  every  source  of  disquietude  seems  exaggerated. 
Sleeplessness  of  this  sort  is  often  the  prelude — and  it 
may  be  either  the  first  indication,  or  itself  the  cause — 
of  insanity.  The  condition  into  which  the  mind  is 
thrown  when  endeavouring  to  sleep  is  essentially 
unsound  and  tends  to  disease. 

Physicians,  realising  the  peril  of  the  position,  give 
their  patients  a  drug  of  some  sort  to  procure  sleep. 
They  do  this  with  the  double  purpose  of  breaking  the 
habit  of  wakefulness  when  this  has  been  formed,  and 
of  rescuing  the  mind  from  a  condition  in  which  it  is 
unsafe.  The  method  of  treatment  would  be  more 
satisfactory  if  we  could  only  believe  that  what  is  called 
"  sleep "  would  put  an  end  to  mental  activity.  Un- 
fortunately there  is  little  ground  for  such  a  hope.  "  To 
sleep — perchance  to  dream  !"  The  gain  will  be  small 
if  the  mental  disquietude  and  disturbance  are  not 
relieved  by  the  poisoned  and  mimic  sleep  produced  by 
drugs.  The  danger  will  be  only  masked,  not  removed. 
Those  who  adopt  this  treatment  point  to  cases  in 
which,  after  a  few  doses  of  a  sleep-potion,  the  sufferer 


38  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

has  regained  the  power  of  falling  asleep  naturally. 
Such  patients  have  undoubtedly  been  benefited  by 
something,  but  it  is  still  an  open  question  whether  the 
relief  may  not  be  due  to  mental  influence  rather  than 
the  medicine.  However  this  may  be,  the  point  in 
which  we  are  chiefly  interested  is  the  state  which 
precedes  and  seems  to  bar  sleep.  We  recognise  its 
perils ;  in  what  way  or  by  what  means  may  they  be 
avoided  ? 

Examined  closely,  the  condition  of  thought-worry 
preventing  sleep  will  be  found  to  be  one  in  which  the 
thinking  faculty  is  beyond  control.  We  may  start  a 
subject,  but  we  cannot  either  keep  the  attention  fixed, 
or  compel  thought  to  take  rational  and  comparative 
views  of  the  objects  presented  to  it.  There  is  a 
tendency  to  exaggeration,  which  the  judgment  is 
powerless  to  restrain  or  correct.  There  is  at  the 
same  time  another  peculiarity,  which  throws  more 
light  on  the  nature  of  the  condition,  namely,  an 
impulse  to  repeat ;  the  mind  goes  over  the  same 
ground  again  and  again.  The  explanation  of  this 
phenomenon  is  simple  and  suggestive;  there  is  a 
perpetual  endeavour  to  sleep,  and  although  the  circum- 
stance may  not  be  recognised,  each  train  of  thoughts 
breaks  off  at  the  precise  moment  when  it  ought  to 
become  a  dream,  and  every  recommencement  s  a 
new  departure  after  a  fresh  act  of  wakefulness. 


Sleeplessness  from  Thought.  39 

It  requires  careful  notice  of  the  subjective  symp- 
toms to  perceive  the  real  nature  of  this  experience. 
The  faculties  appear  to  be  fully  awake  and  in  great 
activity,  but  their  highly  sensitive  state  is  the  effect 
of  an  arrest  of  the  tendency  to  sleep.  This  is  the 
counterpart  of  what  some  individuals  feel  when  they 
are  too  suddenly  awakened.  They  seem  to  be  con- 
scious, and  to  recognise  the  persons  and  objects 
around  them  ;  but  a  sense  of  apprehension,  amount- 
ing almost  to  horror,  holds  them  spell-bound,  and 
fancy  colours  the  scene  with  hues  in  harmony  with 
the  disordered  state  of  thought.  This  happens  on  the 
way  back  to  perfect  wakefulness,  when  the  return  is 
tardy.  The  condition  we  are  describing  occurs  on  the 
road  to  sleep,  when  the  way  is  barred.  The  point  to 
make  clear  is,  that  it  is  quite  as  likely  the  distressing 
thoughts  of  a  sleepless  person  are  the  consequence  of 
the  wakefulness,  as  that  the  inability  to  sleep  is  occa- 
sioned by  thinking. 

Thoughts,  passing  through  the  mind  when  the 
brain  is  falling  into  a  state  of  sleep,  ought  to  be  of  a 
nature  to  change  easily  into  a  dream.  They  are 
essentially  transitional,  half-defined  ideas  and  infer- 
ences, like  those  present  to  the  consciousness  of  a 
person  slowly  awakening,  until  he  is  thoroughly 
aroused.  The  problem  is  to  carry  the  mind  over 
the   boundary  line,  and   convert  what  is  conscious 


40  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

but  uncontrollable  thought  into  a  dream.  If  this 
can  be  accomplished  naturally — that  is,  without  the 
aid  of  drugs,  which  stupefy  the  consciousness  and 
burlesque  the  state  of  sleep  rather  than  produce  it — 
the  subject  of  thought  will  be  soon  changed,  and 
oblivion,  or  at  least  forgetfulness,  induced.  The 
solution  of  this  problem  may  be  attempted  by  either 
of  two  processes. 

I.  A  particular  thought,  or  train  of  thoughts,  pre- 
sent to  the  mind  may  be  seized  upon  at  the  moment 
of  their  occurrence,  while  as  yet  they  are  manageable, 
and  turned  into  grotesque,  thus  preparing  them  to 
become  the  material  or  centre  of  an  amusing  dream. 
This  method  is  less  easy  to  describe  than  to  carry 
out ;  but  experience  proves  that  it  is  abundantly 
efficacious.  Fancy  must  be  directed  to  play  with  the 
thought,  and  weave  a  little  scene  or  story  out  of  its 
slenderest  threads.  Just  enough  effort  to  preserve 
the  connection  of  ideas  is  necessary,  or  the  expedient 
will  fail,  thought  reverting  to  its  former  worrying 
courses.  The  secret  of  the  method  lies  in  holding  the 
thought  fixed,  and  projecting  the  train  of  ideas  by 
fancy  on  a  line  which  may  carry  it  into  dreamland, 
the  dreaminess  of  thought  inducing  sleep.  This  is  a 
perfectly  natural  and  rational  process,  and  it  is  harm- 
less, whereas  the  production  of  stupefaction  by  drugs 
is  artificial,  and  more  or  less  perilous  to  brain  and 


Sleeplessness  from  Thotcgkt.  41 

mind.  The  one  lulls  the  consciousness  to  sleep,  the 
other  overpowers  it  with  a  poison. 

2.  The  alternative  mental  method  by  which  sleep 
may  be  sought,  consists  in  giving  thought  a  mono- 
tonous task  in  the  way  suggested  by  those  who  can 
win  sleep  by  counting,  repeating,  and  the  like  expe- 
dients. This  is  more  difficult  in  really  bad  cases  of 
**  sleeplessness  from  thought "  than  that  first  described 
— in  which  an  idea,  or  train  of  ideas,  already  present 
to  the  mind,  is  converted  into  grotesque.  The  mind 
is  not  easily  taken  out  of  itself  when  engrossed  with 
worrying  topics,  and,  though  fancying  corn-fields  and 
rising  tides,  or  counting  and  piling  up  packages,  or 
smoking  an  imaginary  pipe,  and  watching  the  clouds 
of  tobacco-smoke  rise  over  the  head — so  as  to  direct 
the  eyes  upwards  as  in  sleep — are  good  enough 
devices,  it  is  not  always  practicable  to  shut  out  dis- 
tressing or  plaguing  ideas,  and  concentrate  the  atten- 
tion on  these  meaningless  conceptions  for  the  full 
success  of  which  the  sleep-wooer  needs  a  vacant 
rather  than  a  harassed  mind.  It  is  an  effort  quite  as 
great  as  the  wakeful,  but  worried,  can  make,  to  turn 
a  troublesome  thought  into  grotesque  imagery ;  but 
this  is  easier  than  to  call  up  a  wholly  new  and 
incongruous  idea. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  try  the  connecting  and 
monotonous  imagining  method  familiar  to  everybody , 


42  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

but  when  that  fails,  as  it  generally  does,  recourse 
should  be  had  to  the  artifice  I  have  suggested ;  and  as 
a  rule  it  will  be  found  to  succeed,  although  at  first,  if 
the  mind  be  possessed  by  unpleasant  broodings  or 
bodings,  the  effort  to  think  grotesquely  will  be  grim 
and  resented.  For  instance,  a  man  plagued  with  dis- 
tressing circumstances,  and  dreading  ruin,  should 
force  his  mind  to  pursue  the  train  of  thought  until  the 
comic  side  of  a  reverse  ot  fortune  becomes  apparent — 
following  out  the  straits  to  which  he  will,  perhaps,  be 
reduced,  some  new  phase  of  life  upon  which  he  may  be 
compelled  to  enter,  the  strange  acquaintances  he  is 
likely  to  form,  the  wonderful  scenes  he  will  witness, 
and  the  remarkable  places  he  may  visit.  The  element 
of  probability  must  be  disregarded,  and  the  mind 
allowed,  or  rather  compelled,  to  work  out  the  idea. 
The  effort  will,  at  the  outset,  be  laborious  and  uncon- 
genial, but  unless  the  mind  be  wholly  devoid  of 
humour,  the  severity  will  relax,  and  with  relief  will 
come  sleep. 

"  Sleeplessness  from  thought "  is,  as  I  have  tried  to 
show,  not  unfrequently  wakefulness  induced  by  phy- 
sical conditions,  and  thought  as  a  consequence.  It  is. 
quite  as  easy  to  carry  exertion  beyond  the  limits  of  a 
natural  longing  for  repose,  and  past  the  point  at  which 
the  brain  readily  finds  relief  in  sleep,  as  to  stop  short 
of  the  necessary  but  undetermined  and  ever  varying 


Sleeplessness  from   Thought.  43. 


measure  of  exercise  required  to  favour  sleep.  The 
majority  of  persons  who  suffer  from  persistent  wake- 
fulness, are  addicted  to  excess  of  activity  rather  than 
indolence.  They  work  hard  and  exhaust  themselves, 
though  not  in  the  right  way.  Some  are  too  much 
engrossed  with  pleasure,  and  dissipate  their  strength ;. 
others  are  so  absorbed  with  work,  that  they  cannot 
shake  off  its  obligations  in  the  time  set  apart  for  rest. 
Perhaps  the  most  general  cause  of  sleeplessness 
of  the  kind  we  are  considering,  is  the  habit  of  carrying 
work  over  from  day  to  day,  instead  of  parcelling  it 
out  so  as  to  create  natural  breaks  in  the  enterprise, 
when  the  mind  can  rest  with  the  consciousness  that 
duty  has  been  discharged,  and  a  task  accomplished. 
Nothing  so  much  conduces  to  sleep  as  the  feeling 
of  contentment,  and  this  feeling  can  generally  be 
produced  by  giving  the  mind  a  tale  of  work  in  the 
morning,  which  may  be  completed  before  the  time  of 
rest.  When  the  obligation  has  been  fulfilled,  the 
mind  seeks,  and  generally  finds,  repose  as  the  re- 
compense of  its  toil.  To  break  off  suddenly  in  the 
middle  of  labour,  and  expect  to  command  sleep  at 
call  is  unreasonable.  The  relations  of  body  and 
mind  are  intimate,  but  it  is  seldom  that  the  physical 
part  of  man's  nature  can  be  so  subjugated  that  he 
shall  sleep  instantly  at  will.  Regularity  is  essential 
to  orderly  and  harmonious  working,   and  not  mere 


44  Commo7i  Mind-Troicbles. 

punctuality  as  to  the  measure  of  time,  but  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  day's  duty  within  the  time  allotted  for  its 
performance. 

It  is  a  common  mistake  to  plan  the  business  of 
the  following  day  at  night.  This  is  like  turning  over 
a  new  page,  when  the  book  should  be  closed  and 
laid  aside.  The  task  of  laying  out  schemes  for  the 
future  ought  to  be  the  first  duty  on  waking,  and  if  it 
were  then  discharged,  many  mischievous  dreams,  and 
much  of  the  feeling  that  a  whole  night  has  been  spent 
in  dreaming,  would  be  avoided.  The  fatigue  of  a 
reluctant  waking,  with  no  immediate  purpose  present 
to  the  mind,  often  undoes  the  effect  of  rest  in  sleep. 
When  people  begin  to  toss  on  their  pillows,  they 
should  rise ;  or  if  that  be  impossible,  then  begin' 
to  arrange  the  work  of  the  coming  day.  Each  night 
should  see  the  book  of  life  closed  with  the  feeling  that 
the  account  has  been  duly  made  up.  It  is  the  task 
of  the  morning  to  carry  over  the  debit  or  credit,  and 
start  afresh.  No  one  who  is  wise  will  risk  the  peril  of 
carrying  over  the  balance  before  sleep.  There  are 
iifty  physical  and  mental  reasons  why  the  balance 
of  the  day*s  work  should  not  be  even,  struck  at  night, 
but  one  is  all-sufficient.  Sleeping  on  resolves  for 
self-improvement  is  a  mistaken  policy ;  in  the  interval 
of  sleep  the  motive-effort  subsides,  and  the  evening 
and  morning  story  seldom  agree.     Better  far  finish 


Sleeplessness  from  Thought.  45 

the  work  of  the  day,  close  the  record,  and  seek  rest^ 
When  the  consciousness  returns,  examine  the  situa- 
tion, lay  plans  for  the  future,  and  while  the  impression 
lasts,  act  on  it. 

We  are  too  fond  of  moralising  at  night,  and  of 
resuming  the  business  or  pleasures  of  life  in  forget- 
fulness  of  the  lessons  taught,  and  the  resolves  sug- 
gested by  reflection,  after  the  lapse  of  memory  which 
sleep  even  in  its  lightest  forms  supplies.  Sleeping 
and  waking  are  states  which  are  mutually  dependent,, 
and  must  succeed  each  other  in  orderly  sequence  if 
health  is  to  be  preserved.  Life  is  very  much  an  affair 
of  rhythm,  and  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body  can  be 
secured  only  by  concord,  method,  and  orderly  self- 
control,  by  the  WilL 


HESITATION   AND   ERRORS   IN 
SPEECH. 

Speech  is,  in  a  practical  sense,  more  than  the  mere 
instrument  of  thought.  It  is  so  far  an  essential  part 
of  the  faculty  or  function  of  "thinking,"  that  little 
beyond  a  simple  recognition  of  the  impressions  re- 
ceived through  the  sensations  can  be  accomplished 
without  the  aid  of  language — at  least  in  one  of  its 
elementary  forms.  Thought  and  speech  are  so  con- 
nected, that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  them.  It  is 
not  a  necessity  that  speech  should  be  articulate  and 
audible.  It  may  be  set  in  any  key,  from  the  loudest 
voice-utterance  to  the  mere  self-conscious  conception 
of  certain  sounds,  as  when  a  person  thinks  the  pro- 
nunciation of  a  word,  clearly  marking  its  peculiarities 
in  his  own  mind,  but  in  a  manner  imperceptible  to 
any  one  else.  If  the  performance  of  this  act — pro- 
nouncing a  word  in  thought — be  closely  examined,  it 
will  be  found  that  there  is  an  impulse,  as  it  were,  to 
move  the  lips  and  tongue,  but  so  restrained,  that 
commonly  no  obvious  muscular  action   takes  place. 


Hesitation  and  Errors  in  Speech.     47 

There  are  exceptions  to  this  limitation  which  not  only 
prove  the  rule,  but  show  how  intimately  thoughts  and 
actions  are  connected. 

In  sleep,  during  dreams,  and  in  the  case  of  some 
persons,  especially  the  aged  and  feeble-minded,  when 
awake,  the  lips  move  with  nearly  every  thought, 
though  no  audible  sound  is  emitted.  When  the 
restraint,  normally  exercised,  is  less  forcible,  or  the 
impulse  stronger,  the  thinker  involuntarily  speaks  his 
thoughts ;  and  comical  stories  are  told  of  persons  who 
have  betrayed  their  real  sentiments  inopportunely  by 
this  process  of  thought-speaking.  Faults  in  speech 
are,  therefore,  likely  to  be  due  to  defects  in  thought, 
the  two  faculties  being  mutually  dependent;  or  the 
reverse  may  be  the  case,  and  impediments  and  errors 
of  speech  react  mischievously  on  the  mind.  Much 
interest  and  importance  attach  to  the  conclusion 
arrived  at  with  respect  to  the  real  cause  of  the  hesita- 
tion or  error  which  marks  the  utterance  of  any 
particular  sufferer. 

First,  make  quite  sure  that  it  is  not  ordinary  con- 
fusion of  thought,  consequent  upon  a  slovenly  habit  of 
thinking  or  the  miserable  practice  of  allowing  thoughts 
to  drift,  which  has  produced  the  faltering  or  mistake 
that  occasions  anxiety.  Many  persons  permit  their 
minds  to  become  overrun  with  tangled  scrub,  so  that 
nothing  short  of  the  most  acute  or  agile  powers  of 


48  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

way-finding  can  carry  a  thought  safely  through  the 
domain,  and  then  they  complain  of  the  difficulty  of 
thought-driving  !  Clear  away  the  jungle  that  renders 
the  mind  impassable,  and  thought  will  no  longer  be 
found  to  wander  by  circuitous  paths,  and  too  often  be 
irrecoverably  lost.  The  only  measure  by  which  this 
self-improvement  can  be  accomplished  is  one  of 
culture  j  the  degree  of  labour  required  will  vary  from 
that  of  a  settler  in  the  backwoods,  who  finds  it 
necessary  to  clear  and  dig  every  square  yard  of  the 
land  he  would  convert  to  useful  purposes,  to  the 
ordinary  weeding  and  breaking  the  clods  which  may 
suffice  to  repair  the  results  of  a  single  season  of 
neglect.  In  any  event,  however  great  or  small  the 
task  may  be,  the  cultivation  must  be  accomplished,  or 
this,  tlie  most  troublesome  and  inconvenient  cause  of 
speech-blundering,  a  weedy,  tangled,  and  lumpy  state 
of  mind  cannot  be  remedied.  We  are  not  now  con- 
cerned with  faults  of  the  motor  apparatus  or  mechan- 
ism of  the  voice;  and,  excluding  these,  it  may  be 
asserted  that,  of  all  causes  of  hesitation  or  error  in 
speech  which  lie,  so  to  say,  deeper  than  the  surface, 
the  neglect  of  self-control  in  thought  is  the  most 
common  and,  in  many  senses,  the  most  mischievous. 

If  a  person  who  has  previously  been  an  easy  and 
fluent  speaker  begins  to  hesitate  in  his  utterance, 
there  is  generally  reason  for  anxiety.     Supposing  the 


Hesitation  and  Errors  in  Speech,    49 

general  health  to  be  good,  and  nothing  specially 
notable  to  have  happened  in  the  life  of  the  individual 
which  might  have  produced  what  is  commonly  called 
a  "  shock  "  to  the  mind  or  the  nervous  system,  there 
is  probably  some  physical  or  mental  disorder  in  the 
background,  to  which  attention  should  be  directed. 
If  the  cause  be  physical,  the  attempt  to  speak  will 
generally  be  accompanied  by  trembling  or  twitching 
in  the  muscles  of  the  mouth,  the  lips,  the  nose,  or  the 
jaw.  Should  any  such  symptom  be  perceptible  to 
friends,  or  self-detected,  it  will  be  wise  to  seek  medical 
advice  without  delay,  because  it  may  be  produced  by 
conditions  the  most  important,  or  comparatively  trivial, 
and  no  one  except  a  skilled  practitioner  can  determine 
from  which  of  several  sources  the  agitation  springs ; 
whether  it  indicates  mere  weakness  or  serious  disease. 
Commonly,  when  there  is  none  of  this  trembling  or 
twitching,  and  sometimes  even  when  these  are  present, 
the  hesitation  is  mental.  Either  the  mind  is  too  busy 
with  a  crowd  of  thoughts  to  maintain  proper  command 
of  the  word-finding  function,  or  that  faculty  is  so 
enfeebled  that  it  seems  incapable  of  any  reasonable 
activity  in  the  service  of  the  Will.  It  is  quick  enough 
in  the  response  to  influences  which  have  no  right  to 
usurp  control,  but  when  the  master-spirit  of  thought, 
the  Judgment  ruling  by  the  Will,  issues  a  mandate, 
the  faculty  is  powerless  to   obey.     This  comes  of  a 


5o  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

riotous  or  vicious  habit  of  thinking.  The  mind- 
weakness  which  results  from  the  terrible  error  of 
mental  dissipation,  whatever  the  direction  in  which 
the  thoughts  are  permitted  to  disport  themselves,  is 
one  of  the  most  perilous  conditions  of  exhaustion  into 
which  the  faculties  of  a  still  sound  brain  can  be 
allowed  to  sink.  It  is  a  state  of  which  the  mind  in 
danger  is  itself  conscious  long  before  any  indication 
becomes  recognisable  by  others.  Hesitation  in  speech 
is  one  of  the  earliest  external  symptoms  which  indicate 
this  malady,  but  when  that  occurs,  the  weakening 
power  has  generally  been  in  secret  operation  for  a 
length  of  time  sufficient  to  accomplish  serious  mischief. 
It  is  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  too  late  to  mend  matters ; 
but  the  individual  who  has  permitted  his  mind  to  pass 
into  this  condition  has  incurred  a  great  peril. 

This  is  a  point  on  which  it  is  necessary  to  speak 
plainly.  Habits  of  musing,  brooding,  or  conjuring  up 
mental  pictures  and  scenes  in  which  the  thinker  is 
himself  an  actor,  and  into  which  he  gradually  brings 
his  faculties  of  imagination,  and  even  his  sensations, 
are  the  overlooked,  the  unconfessed,  perhaps  the 
unrecognised,  causes  of  by  far  the  larger  number  of 
attacks  of  **  insanity."  And,  though  it  seems  cruel  to 
say  so,  the  great  majority  of  poor  creatures,  especially 
the  younger  and  middle-aged  persons,  who  with 
wrecked    minds    drag  out  weary  years    in   lunatic 


I 


Hesitation  and  Errors  in  Speech,     5 1 


asylums  have  themselves  to  thank  for  the  experience. 
Any  one  of  a  score  of  existing  causes  may  over- 
balance the  mind  or  occasion  the  outbreak  and  deter- 
mine the  particular  form  the  mind-malady  ultimately 
assumes ;  but  the  predisposing  cause  which  renders 
the  disaster  possible  and  entails  all  the  evil  conse- 
quences is  the  morbid  habit  of  allowing  the  thoughts 
to  wander  uncontrolled,  at  first  innocently,  then  in 
forbidden  paths,  and  finally  wherever  the  haunting 
demon  of  the  inner  life,  a  man's  worse  nature,  his  evil 
self,  may  lure  or  drive  them  ! 

The  habit  of  preoccupation  which  sometimes  shows 
itself  by  hesitation  in  speech  is  less  dangerous  than 
weakness,  but  it  should  not  be  neglected.  Having 
^*  too  much  to  think  about "  is  not  so  bad  as  having 
exhausted  the  power  of  voluntary  thought,  but  it  is  an 
evil.  "  Too  much  "  does  not  always  mean  more  than 
the  mind  ought  to  be  able  to  receive  and  deal  with. 
It  is  quite  as  often  too  much  for  the  defective  discip- 
line of  thought  maintained,  as  really  more  than  a  due 
quantity  for  the  mind  engaged  if  the  business  of 
thinking  were  properly  conducted.  There  is  a  marked 
tendency  in  modern  education — and  it  increases  each 
year — to  neglect  the  training  of  minds.  The  subjects 
which  were  principally  useful  for  purposes  of  mental 
•development  and  exercise  are  being  eliminated  be- 
cause they  do  not  commend  themselves  to  the  com- 

£    2 


52  Common  Mind-Trottbles. 

mercial  instinct  of  the  day  as  producing  marketable 
information.  Greek,  Latin,  mathematics,  and  the  Uke^ 
are  not  possessed  of  a  high  value  in  the  mart  of  com- 
merce or  on  'Change,  and  they  are  therefore  lightly 
estimated. 

We  are  beginning  to  reap  the  fruit  of  this  time- 
serving policy  in  education,  and  it  takes  the  form  of  a 
general  break-down  of  young  minds  when  set  to  any 
duty  which  involves  dealing  with  a  crowd  of  thoughts 
at  once.  The  untrained  and  disorderly  thinker  cannot 
choose  his  words,  he  has  "  no  time ''  to  arrange  them^ 
and  can  seldom  find  them  when  wanted.  He  is 
"thinking  of  something  else."  It  has  come  to  be 
thought  rather  clever  to  be  "abstracted,"  and  "  so 
engrossed,"  "  with  many  things  to  think  about  1'^ 
These  are  the  pitiful  excuses  offered  by  a  generation 
of  incompetent  and  confused  thinkers  when  their 
speech  betrays  them.  A  clever  talker  will  often 
bridge  over  the  gap  between  two  right  words  in  place 
of  interposing  a  wrong  one.  It  is  amusing  and,  in  a 
certain  sense,  interesting  to  notice  how  admirably  this 
is  done  by  self-possessed  though  confused  speakers ; 
but  the  evil  of  disorderly  thought  lurks  behind,  and 
may  be  detected  through  the  flimsy,  though  ingenious, 
artifice. 

The  remedy  for  a  growing  hesitancy  in  speech, 
when  not  the  result  of  serious  mind-weakness — and 


Hesitation  and  Errors  in  Speech,     53 

the  person  affected  is  generally  secretly  conscious  of 
the  cause — is  a  better  method  of  thinking.  The  first 
effort  must  be  to  preserve  greater  calmness:  the 
second,  to  be  more  orderly  in  thought.  There  is 
a  process  in  thinking  which  is  the  counterpart  of 
dotting  the  ^''s  and  putting  in  the  stops  in  writing,  or 
of  knotting  the  thread  and  "  fastening  off"  securely  in 
needlework.  If  this  be  neglected,  as  it  commonly  is 
by  what  are  called  rapid — another  word  for  careless, 
reckless,  or  impetuous — thinkers,  entanglement  and 
confusion  in  thought,  showing  themselves  in  hesitation 
and  errors  of  speech,  are  inevitable. 

Verbal  blunders  are  generally  due  to  confusions  of 
thought,  but  sometimes  to  disease.  It  is  important 
to  distinguish  between  the  two  varieties  of  this  fault 
The  former  is  a  matter  for  self-improvement,  the  latter 
will  require  medical  aid.  If  the  mistakes  made  seem 
to  follow  no  particular  line  of  error — if  they  are,  so  to 
say,  general  or  capricious,  the  wrong  words  substituted 
for  what  it  was  wished  to  say  being  taken  at  random, 
perhaps  from  some  other  sentence  at  the  moment 
darting  across  the  mind — the  "confusion"  may  be 
safely  set  down  as  one  to  be  cured  by  mind-discipline. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  particular  words,  previously 
familiar  and  ready  at  hand,  are  forgotten,  certain 
numbers  dropped  out  of  memory,  and  a  sort  of 
method  seems  to  determine  the  occurrence  of  faults 


54  Common  Mind-Troubles, 

in  speaking  or  writing,  the  matter  may  be  more  serious^ 
and  advice  should  be  sought.  It  is  a  curious  feature 
of  the  early  forms  of  speech-disorder  springing  from 
physical  sources — for  example,  incipient  disease  of  the 
brain — that  particular  elements  of  knowledge  seem  to 
be  effaced,  and  special  processes  of  thought  or  reason- 
ing can  no  longer  be  performed,  although  the  great 
mass  of  mind-work  goes  on  unimpaired. 

A  world  of  trouble  would  be  saved  if,  in  all  mental 
derangements,  apart  from  brain-disease,  persons  who 
feel  things  going  amiss  with  them  (and  I  am  convinced 
this  premonition  of  mind-disorder  is  a  common  expe- 
rience), whether  the  sensation  be  one  of  "  irritabihty  '^ 
or  of  "  confusion,"  would  undertake  of  their  own  free 
motive,  to  cure  the  evil  by  subjecting  the  consciousness 
to  a  regular  course  of  training.  The  best  plan  is  ta 
set  the  mind  a  daily  task  of  reading,  not  too  long,  but 
sufficiently  difficult  to  give  the  thoughts  full  employ- 
ment while  they  are  engaged.  This  should  be  per- 
formed at  fixed  hours.  Perfect  regularity  is  essential, 
because  the  object  is  to  restore  the  rhythm  of  the 
mind  and  brace  it  up  to  higher  tension.  When,  as  in 
the  class  of  cases  we  are  considering,  hesitation  and 
errors  in  speech  are  the  characteristic  symptoms  of  a 
break-down  or  impaired  vigour  of  mind,  much  good 
will  often  be  done  by  reading  aloud  for  an  hour  or 
more  daily  to  the  family. 


Hesitation  and  Errors  in  Speech.     55 

It  is  not  only  useless  but  harmful  to  read  aloud 
when  alone;  the  mind  conjures  up  an  imaginary 
audience,  and  this  habit  of  "  conjuring  up "  things  is 
one  of  the  short  cuts  to  insanity  which  should  be  care- 
fully avoided,  more  particularly  by  those  who  are 
most  expert  in  the  exercise — the  highly  imaginative. 
Another  drawback  consists  in  the  fact  that  when  a 
person  reads  aloud,  without  a  real  audience  to  engross 
that  portion  of  the  thoughts  which  will  wander  from 
the  subject,  the  mind  becomes  engaged  with  the  sound 
of  the  voice  through  the  faculty  of  hearing;  and  this 
paves  the  way  for  other  mischief.  It  is  by  gradually 
substituting  in  fancy,  and  then  mistaking,  their  own 
voices  for  those  of  other  beings  that  the  weak  and 
morbidly-minded  become  impressed  with  the  notion 
that  they  are  honoured  or  plagued,  as  the  mood  may 
determine,  with  communications,  super  or  extra- 
natural — which  are  in  truth  the  echoes  of  their  own 
imaginary  utterances. 

By  reading  aloud  any  healthy  and  improving  work 
which  is  so  interesting  as  to  engage  the  thoughts,  the 
strained  connections  between  thought  and  speech  will 
be  relieved.  Properly  employed,  this  is  one  of  the 
most  patent  and  effective  of  remedies  for  disorders  of 
the  faculty  of  speech ;  but  it  is  essential  to  success  in 
the  experiment  of  self-cure  that  the  book  read  should 
be  of  a  nature  to  interest,  and  sufficiently  difficult  to 


^6  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

hold  the  attention.  In  some  cases  the  exercise  is 
rendered  more  effectual  by  reading  aloud  in  one  lan- 
guage from  a  work  written  in  another — for  example, 
a  French  book  to  an  English  audience.  This  gives 
practice  in  the  choice  of  words,  and  brings  the  memory 
into  play,  the  two  faculties  it  is  desired  to  develop  and 
strengthen.  Hesitation  and  errors  in  speech  are  of 
great  moment,  view  them  as  we  may.  In  their  less 
serious  forms  they  demand  a  vigorous  effort  for  self- 
improvement  ;  in  their  more  grave  varieties  they  por- 
tend they  existence  of  perils  to  brain  and  mind 


LOW   SPIRITS. 

There  is  enough  in  the  daily  experience  of  life  to 
depress  the  feehngs  and  rob  the  mind  of  its  buoyancy, 
without  having  to  encounter  lowness  of  spirits  as  a 
besetting  mental  state  or  malady.  Nevertheless,  it  so 
frequently  assumes  the  character  of  an  affection  essen- 
tially morbid,  attacks  individuals  who  are  not  naturally 
disposed  to  despondency,  and  gives  so  many  un- 
mistakable proofs  of  its  close  relations  with  the  health 
of  the  physical  organism,  that  it  must  needs  be  included 
in  the  category  of  disease.  The  constitutional  melan- 
choly which  distinguishes  certain  types  of  character 
and  development,  is  a  setting  in  the  minor  key  rather 
than  depression.  Within,  the  compass  of  a  lower 
range,  individuals  of  this  class  exhibit  as  many  changes 
of  mood  as  tnose  whose  temperament  is,  so  to  sa)-, 
pitched  higher,  and  who  therefore  seem  to  be  capable 
of  greater  elation. 

It  is  important  to  ascertain  at  the  outset  whether  a 
particular  person  upon  whom  interest  may  be  centred 
is   not  naturally  characterised  by  this  restrained  or 


58  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

reserved  tone  of  feeling !  Unhealthy  conditions  of 
mind  are  generally  to  be  recognised  by  the  circumstance 
that  they  offer  a  contrast  to  some  previous  state. 
The  movable,  excitable  temperament  may  become  fixed 
and  seemingly  unimpressionable,  the  self-possessed 
begin  to  be  irritable,  the  calm,  passionate.  It  is  the 
change  that  attracts  attention,  and  when  low  spirits 
come  to  afflict  a  mind  wont  to  exhibit  resilience  and 
joyousness,  there  must  be  a  cause  for  the  altered  tone^ 
and  prudence  will  enjoin  watchfulness.  Mischief  may 
be  done  unwittingly  by  trying  to  stimulate  the  un- 
controllable emotions. 

There  are  few  more  common  errors  than  that  which 
assumes  lowness  of  spirits  to  be  a  state  in  which  an 
appeal  should  be  made  to  the  sufferer.  We  con- 
stantly find  intelligent  and  experienced  persons,  who 
show  considerable  skill  in  dealing  with  other  mental 
disorders  and  disturbances,  fail  in  the  attempt  to 
relieve  the  pains  of  melancholy.  They  strive  by 
entreaty,  expostulation,  firmness,  and  even  brusque- 
ness,  to  coerce  the  victim,  and  prevail  upon  him  to 
shake  off  his  despondency.  They  urge  him  to  take 
an  interest  in  what  is  passing  around,  to  bestir  him- 
self, and  put  an  end  to  his  broodings.  This  would  be 
all  very  well  if  the  burden  that  presses  so  heavily  on 
the  spirit  simply  lay  on  the  surface,  but  the  lowness 
of  which  I  am  speaking  is  something  far  deeper  than 


I 


Low  Spirits.  59 


can  be  reached  by  "rallying."  It  is  a  freezing  of 
all  the  energies ;  a  blight  which  destroys  the  vitality, 
a  poison  that  enervates  and  paralyses  the  whole- 
system. 

It  is  no  use  probing  the  consciousness  for  the  cause 
while  the  depression  lasts — as  well  look  for  the  weapon 
by  which  a  man  has  been  struck  senseless  to  the  earth, 
when  the  victim  lies  faint  and  bleeding  in  need  oi 
instant  succour.  If  the  cause  were  found  at  such  a 
moment,  nothing  could  be  done  to  prevent  its  doing 
further  mischief  Supposing  it  be  discovered  that  the 
malady  is  the  fruit  of  some  evil-doing  or  wrong 
management  of  self,  the  moment  when  a  crushed 
spirit  is  undergoing  the  penalty  of  its  error  is  not 
that  which  should  be  selected  for  remonstrance.  It 
is  vain  to  argue  with  a  man  whose  every  faculty  of 
self-control  is  at  its  lowest  ebb.  The  judgment  and 
the  will  are  dormant.  The  show  of  feeling  made  by 
the  conscience  in  the  hour  of  dejection  is  in  great 
part  emotional,  and  the  purposes  then  formed  are 
sterile.  The  tears  of  regret,  the  efforts  of  resolve, 
elicited  in  the  state  of  depression,  are  worse  than 
useless ;  they  are  like  the  struggles  of  a  man  sinking 
in  a  quicksand — they  bury  the  mind  deeper  instead  of 
freeing  it. 

The  state  of  mental  collapse  must  be  allowed  to 
pass;    but  here   comes  the   difficulty;    the   moment 


6o  Com^non  Mind-Troubles. 

reaction  takes  place,  as  shown  by  a  slight  raising  of 
the  cloud,  it  will  be  too  late  to  interfere.  The  mind 
will  then  have  entered  on  another  phase  not  less 
morbid  than  the  depression  which  it  has  replaced. 
There  is  no  certain  indication  of  the  right  moment  to 
make  the  effort  for  the  relief  of  a  sufferer  from  this 
progressive  malady.  The  way  to  help  is  to  watch  the 
changes  of  temperament  narrowly  and,  guided  by  time 
rather  than  symptoms,  to  present  some  new  object  of 
interest — a  trip,  an  enterprise,  a  congenial  task — at 
the  moment  which  immediately  precedes  the  recovery. 
The  soul  lies  brooding — it  is  about  to  wake ;  the  pre- 
cise time  can  be  foreknown  only  by  watching  the 
course  of  previous  attacks ;  whatever  engrosses  the 
rousing  faculties  most  powerfully  on  waking,  will 
probably  hold  them  for  awhile.  It  is  a  struggle  be- 
tween good  and  healthy  influences  on  the  one  hand, 
and  evil  and  morbid  on  the  other.  If  it  be  earnestly 
desired  to  rescue  the  sufferer,  the  right  method  must 
be  pursued,  and  wrong  and  mischief-working  proce- 
dures— among  which  preaching,  persuading,  moralis- 
ing, and  rallying  are  the  worst  and  most  hurtful — 
ought  to  be  carefully  avoided.  When  the  thoughts 
are  revived  and  the  faculties  rebound,  they  must  be 
kept  engaged  with  cheering  and  healthful  subjects. 

There  is  no  greater  error  than  to  suppose  good  has 
been  accomplished  when  a  melancholic  patient  has 


I 


Low  Spirits.  61 


been  simply  aroused.  The  apparently  bright  interval 
of  a  malady  of  this  class  is  even  more  perilous  than 
the  period  of  exhaustion  and  lowness.  The  moment 
the  mind  resumes  the  active  state,  it  generally  resumes^ 
the  work  of  self-destruction.  The  worst  mischief  is 
wrought  in  the  so-called  lucid  interval.  The  con- 
sciousness must  be  absorbed  and  busied  with  healthful 
exercise,  or  it  will  re-engage  in  the  morbid  process 
which  culminates  in  depression.  The  problem  is  to 
keep  off  the  next  collapse,  and  this  can  be  accom- 
plished only  by  obviating  the  unhealthy  excitement 
by  which  it  is  commonly  preceded  and  produced. 
Healthy  activity  promotes  nutrition,  and  replenishes 
the  strength  of  mind  and  body  alike  \  all  action  that 
does  not  improve  the  quality  of  the  organ  acting,, 
deteriorates  it  and  tends  to  pervert  normal  function. 

The  continuous  morbid  state  of  melancholy  is 
progressively  built  up  of  successive  attacks  of  lowness 
and  despondency.  It  is  in  the  intervals  of  seeming 
relief,  while  this  deadly  work  is  in  progress,  that  the 
cause  may  be  discovered,  and  probably  removed.  In 
most  cases  the  sufferer  is  conscious  of  the  way  the 
depression  has  been  brought  about,  or  of  the  train  of 
reflections  by  which  it  has  been  ushered  in ;  but  it 
is  vain  to  hope,  and  a  mistake  to  try,  to  elicit  the 
fact  by  questioning.  The  existence  of  any  known 
cause  will  be  repudiated.    Unless  the  patient  becomes 


62  ^ommon  Mind-Troubles. 

his  own  physician,  there  is  little  chance  of  a  direct 
cure. 

The  mind  commonly  varies  in  mood  with  the  state 
-of  the  body,  and  when  energy  is  exhausted,  the  im- 
pulse or  flow  of  the  animal  spirits  is  checked.  De- 
pression often  springs  from  a  physical  cause,  and  if 
no  mistake  were  made  in  dealing  with  it,  small  mischief 
would  result.  Unhappily,  serious  misconception  pre- 
vails. It  has  been  discovered  that  by  the  use  of  a 
stimulant  the  reserve  of  nervous  strength  which 
nature  has  designed  to  act,  not  merely  as  a  resource 
in  emergency,  but  as  the  foundation  stock  of  energy, 
the  basal  cause  of  resilience — as  the  contained  air  of 
a  bagpipe — may  be  pressed  into  the  service  of  the 
passing  moment  \  and  careless  of  the  ruinous  impoHcy 
of  this  resource,  stimulants  are  administered,  and  the 
excitement  produced  is  mistaken  for  healthy  action. 
The  exhausted  brains,  irritable  nervous  systems,  im- 
paired intellects,  incapable  of  any  useful  work,  and 
the  blighted  lives,  of  those  who  resort  to  this  pernicious 
palliative  for  low  spirits,  should  warn  the  sufferer 
inclined  to  try  the  expedient,  and  act  as  a  deterrent  to 
friends  searching  for  a  remedy.  Lowness  is  exhaus- 
tion, and  anything  which  tends  to  use  up  the  reserve 
of  strength,  must  ultimately  increase  the  evil  it  is 
meant  to  cure.  By  stimulating  instead  of  nourishing 
the  brain,  the  mind  is,  in  process  of  time,  reduced  to 


Low  Spirits.  63 


a  condition  of  lasting  incompetency,  whereas,  without 
such  mistaken  assistance,  it  would,  probably,  recover 
its  buoyancy. 

There  is  always  danger  of  converting  a  mere  tempo- 
rary suspension  of  function,  dependent  upon  recover- 
able debility  of  an  organ,  •  into  permanent  incapacity 
by  pressure  of  excitement,  while  the  lapse  of  power 
continues.  The  peril  is  especially  great  in  relation  to 
functions  of  the  brain.  It  is  therefore  a  measure  of 
common  prudence  to  treat  the  state  o£.Jow  spirits  as 
one  of  temporary  exhaustion,  and  to  give  time  for 
recovery  by  the  process  of  brain  nutrition.  If  a  mind 
is  conscious  of  having  passed  through  one  cycle  of 
elation  and  depression,  it  should  avoid  the  cause, 
whatever  that  may  have  been.  It  is  always  a  wretched, 
and  generally  a  ruinous  bargain,  that  a  debased  judg- 
ment makes  with  self  for  the  purchase  of  a  transient 
pleasure.  The  prudent  will  not  thus  barter  mental 
strength  and  sanity  for  a  passing  distraction.  It 
matters  little  what  the  dissipation  may  be,  except  that 
some  forms  of  self-gratification  ruin  body  and  mind 
together :  however  unnatural,  or  untimely,  or  inordi- 
nate, excitement  is  brought  about,  it  acts  in  the  same 
pernicious  way,  impairing,  and  at  length  destroying, 
the  vitality. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  state  or  mood  so 
commonly  deplored  and  little  understood,  as  this  we 


64  Common  Mind-Troubles, 

are  considering.  Men  and  women  may  drag  out 
weary  existences  in  sorrow  and  difficulty,  enduring 
that  most  poignant  of  pains,  the  heartache,  without 
suffering  from  this  malady.  The  depression  they 
experience  is  rather  that  of  crushing  and  pressure  than 
exhaustion.  The  mind  makes  an  instant  effort  ta 
rise  when  a  gleam  of  hope,  however  weak  and  evan- 
escent, glints  across  the  path.  It  is  astonishing  how 
elastic  are  the  healthy  spirits,  and  with  what  ready 
energy  they  recover  when  relief  comes.  Meanwhile, 
the  loss  of  resilience  which  supervenes  on  repeated 
exhaustion  increases  with  each  attack.  The  truth 
about  this  lowness  will  never  be  known,  unless  its 
real  nature  is  recognised.  AHenists  speak  of  *^  rotary 
mania,"  in  which  paroxysms  of  excitement  and  periods 
of  melancholy  succeed  each  other.  This  is  only  an 
intensified  development  of  the  state  we  are  speaking 
about.  Periodic  attacks  of  low  spirits — call  the  mood 
by  what  name  we  may — are  morbid  manifestations  of 
the  same  kind,  though  less  in  degree,  and  as  yet 
unformulated. 

Let  those  who  suffer  from  this  infliction  beware ; 
let  them  above  all  things,  recognise  the  nature  of 
the  malady,  and  foresee  its  issue.  Let  them  also 
realise  how  completely,  at  the  outset,  the  prevention 
of  the  evil  lies  within  the  scope  of  their  own  powers 
of    self-help.      When   once  the   disease   has  passed 


I 


Low  Spirits.  65 


beyond  this  early  stage,  it  rests  with  others  to  help ; 
and  if  they  will  ponder  the  hints  here  thrown  together, 
they  may  be  able  to  avoid  doing  mischief,  and  perhaps 
lend  lasting  aid.  Two  opposite  extremes  are  to  be 
avoided  with  equal  care — doing  too  much,  and  doing 
too  little.  The  error  of  interference  in  cases  where 
meddling  must  be  mischievous  must  be  great ;  but 
the  fault  of  standing  by  idly  while  poor  folk  drift  into 
hopeless  melancholy  or  dementia  is  greater.  It  needs 
extraordinary  patience  and  a  large  share  of  natural 
intelligence  to  determine  when  and  how  to  interpose. 
I  have  tried  to  show  that  the  time  must  be  judged  by 
the  period  of  the  attack  rather  than  the  symptoms ; 
and  it  follows  from  what  has  been  said  that  the 
endeavour  must  be  to  lead  the  mind  back  to  health 
by  new  paths  which  shall  awaken  new  sentiments  and 
call  up  fresh  impulses.  The  two  most  deadly  perils 
to  be  avoided  are  despondency  and  quackery.  There 
is  always  hope  in  Nature  loyally  obeyed^  and  despaii  in 
**  special "  treatment,  however  sagaciously  applied. 


TEMPERS— GOOD   AND   BAD. 

Bad  temper,  or,  more  accurately  speaking,  want  of 
temper,  is  one  of  the  most  regrettable  and  the  gravest 
defects  of  character.  The  explosive  irritability  that 
makes  a  man  "boil  over,"  as  the  saying  is,  "like 
milk  "  when  heated  by  the  slightest  provocation  can- 
not be  set  down  as  by  any  means  the  most  serious 
form  of  fault.  It  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  real 
malignity  as,  what  is  commonly  called,  "  nervousness  " 
to  cowardice.  The  man  who  starts  at  the  cracking 
of  a  piece  of  furniture  may  not  flinch  before  the 
onslaught  of  a  deadly  foe ;  trembling  at  an  unexplained 
sound  or  shadow,  he  may  stand  with  a  face  of  flint 
when  known  danger  has  to  be  encountered.  In  the 
same  way  the  superficially  excitable  are  often  the 
most  self-controlled  and  imperturbable  when  the  first 
outburst  of  passion  has,  so  to  say,  cleared  the  atmo- 
sphere. Such  temperaments  may  not  conduce  to  the 
easiest  relations  and  the  smoothest  intercourse  in 
domestic  or  social  life,  but  they  are  incomparably 
more  compatible  with  the  requirements  of  genuine 


Tempers — Good  and  Bad,  67 

friendship  than  many  of  the  placid  and  inscrutable 
mental  constitutions  not  so  readily  understood. 

Temper  of  mind  and  character  is  something  akin  to 
the  tension  of  strings  in  a  musical  instrument,  or  the 
temper  of  steel.  If  the  stretch  be  equally  distributed, 
the  sounds  produced,  or  the  cohesion  and  elasticity 
possessed,  are  well  formulated  and  trustworthy.  If 
there  be  faults  in  the  quality  or  character,  the  vibra- 
tions fail  to  emit  a  true  tone,  and  the  strength  is 
treacherous.  In  short,  temper  is  an  outcome  of  per- 
sonal constitution  in  which  the  separate  qualities  and 
the  mutual  reactions  of  mind  and  body  play  a  con- 
spicuous part.  To  grasp  the  subject  in  any  scientific 
sense  it  would  be  necessary  to  take  into  account  more 
•of  the  mental  and  physical  properties  than  can  be 
comprehended  within  the  limits  of  a  brief  paper.  Let 
ius  rest  content  with  a  cursory  glance  at  some  of  its 
•more  practical  phases. 

The  emotional  part  of  man's  nature  seems  to  lie 
near  the  surface,  and  responds  most  readily  to  those 
external  impressions  which  act  superficially.  This  is 
why  "  feeling,"  in  its  popular  sense,  affords  no  certain 
measure  of  the  inner  and  deeper  qualities  of  sympathy 
and  benevolence.  The  sentimentality  expressed  by 
the  emotion  may  be  great  when  there  is  little  or  no 
real  interest  or  kindness.  The  surface  is  stirred  by 
the  passing  breeze,  but  the  depths  are  sullen  and  stilL 

F    2 


68  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  deep  current  of  genuine  feeling 
beneath  may  impart  so  much  motion  to  the  whole  that 
the  surface  will  be  less  responsive  to  external  influences, 
just  as  the  flutter  of  a  falling  leaf  may  ripple  the  mirror- 
like pool,  while  a  stone  hurled  into  the  strongly 
running  stream  will  scarcely  disturb  it. 

The  annals  of  crime  curiously  and  painfully  illustrate 
the  value,  or  rather  worthlessness,  of  what  is  called 
"  feeling."  Not  a  few  of  the  most  malignant  and 
cruel  murders  have  been  perpetrated  with  remorseless 
ingenuity,  occupying  months  or  even  years  in  elabora- 
tion, by  men  and  women  of  highly  emotional  natures^ 
and  exhibiting  traits  of  acute  sentimentality  and  quickly 
responsive  feeling.  Some  of  the  notorious  poisoners 
have  been  persons  of  almost  preternaturally  sensitive 
organisation.  Nothing  therefore  can  be  inferred  from 
the  mobility  of  a  temperament  as  to  the  qualities  of 
heart  that  underlie  the  demeanour.  Nevertheless  there 
ought  to  be  a  general  accord  between  the  upper  and 
lower  strata  of  the  character,  and,  if  the  psycho- 
physical constitution  be  well  grown  and  tempered^ 
there  will  be  conformity. 

Tempers  are  "  good  "  or  "  bad "  as  they  hold  the 
qualities,  the  properties  of  mind  and  body  in  unison. 
It  is  too  much  the  practice  to  judge  temper  less  by  the 
general  character  than  by  its  accidental  peculiarities. 
If  the  temper  always,  or  even  commonly,  reflected  the 


Tempers — Good  and  Bad.  69 

character,  of  which  it  is  only  a  quahty,  this  rough  and 
ready  method  might  be  permissible ;  but  that  is 
rarely  the  fact.  The  majority  of  mankind  have  been, 
so  to  say,  beaten  into  shape  and  moulded  by  associa- 
tions. The  result  of  this  education  by  circumstances 
is  found  to  be  a  heterogeneous  rather  than  a  perfectly 
consistent  character,  and  without  homogeneity  there 
cannot  be  an  accurate  and  equable  temper.  *^  Hasty  " 
tempers  are  the  product  of  an  irritabihty  that  often,  if 
not  generally,  lies  on  the  surface.  The  fault  is  nearly 
always  due  to  some  want  of  confoiTnity  in  the  relations 
of  mind  and  body;  one  is  weaker  than  the  other. 
The  weak  of  body  are  irritable  because  their  physical 
powers  do  not  instantly  and  adequately  fulfil  the 
behests  of  the  mind. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  more  persuasive  evidence  in 
support  of  the  belief  that  the  brain  is  only  the  instru- 
ment, not  the  source  and  factor,  of  mind,  than  the 
impatience  with  which  the  Will  overrides,  and  the 
intolerance  with  which  it  treats,  the  brain-weaknesses 
and  incapacities  of  which  the  mind  is  self-conscious. 
Take,  for  example,  the  irritability  begotten  of  a  sense 
of  humiliation  and  vexation  because  it  is  impossible  to 
encounter  the  ills  of  daily  life  with  greater  equanimity 
— a  common  cause  of  irritability,  which  is  seldom 
understood,  and  for  which  few  persons  make  allow- 
ance, though  it  is  extremely  painful  to  the  sufferer. 


Common  Mind-  Troubles. 


What  is  this  temperament  but  a  mind  irritated  by  the 
weakness  or  imperfection  of  its  own  brain-power? 
The  individual  is  irritable  because  he  is  irritable. 
Cause  and  effect  are  confounded,  and  the  conscious- 
ness is  embarrassed  by  the  inability  to  extricate  itself 
from  the  tangle.  Those  who  are  worn  by  pain  or 
worrying  distress  of  body  or  mind  know  by  bitter  expe- 
rience how  terrible  this  irritability  is ;  and  how  small 
is  the  sympathy  to  be  expected  from  those  around. 
A  most  painful  self-consciousness  of  this  kind  is  that 
endured  by  persons  in  seeming  health  but  of  weakly 
physical  constitution,  and  those  who  are  the  victims  of 
secret  suffering.  The  struggle  to  be  calm,  to  exercise 
self-control,  to  blunt  the  sensibility  to  petty  annoy- 
ances, to  oppose  a  bold  and  courageous  front  to  cir- 
cumstances, is  exhausting,  and  matters  grow  worse 
instead  of  better,  despite  the  effort  and  wasted 
strength.  It  may  be  some  consolation,  and  even 
helpful,  to  those  affected  with  this  form  of  irritability 
to  know  that  their  peculiarity  is  not  wholly  unrecog- 
nised, and  that  it  arises  from  bodily  causes,  although 
the  experience  is  mental. 

The  weak  or  small  of  mind,  on  the  contrary,  suffer 
less  inconvenience  from  their  irascible  tempers  than 
they  inflict  on  those  who  are  exposed  to  their  fury. 
The  full-blooded  and  passionate  have  generally  more 
animal   force   than   they  know  how   to   keep   under 


I 


Tempers — Good  and  Bad.  71 


proper  control.  The  superfluous  energy  must  find  a 
vent,  and,  provided  always  that  this  can  be  accom- 
plished harmlessly,  the  explosion,  though  unpleasant, 
is  not  to  be  regretted.  Vigorous  constitutions  caged 
by  local  disease  or  disabihty  are  especially  prone  to 
this  form  of  outbreak.  In  the  case  of  prisoners  it  is 
often  developed  to  the  dimensions  of  a  periodic 
malady,  and,  the  storm  being  misunderstood,  is  too 
frequently  punished  as  a  new  crime  or  intentional 
act  of  rebellion,  whereas  it  ought  to  be  treated  as  an 
explosive  disease. 

The  remedy  for  this  last-mentioned  form  of  "  tem- 
per," whether  the  mind  be  healthy  but  small,  or 
morbid  or  unoccupied,  which  is  much  the  same  in 
effect,  should  be  sought  in  work.  The  physical  force 
needs  to  be  utilised,  and  it  will  be  well  if  it  can  be 
turned  to  account  with  some  worthy  purpose  and 
result.  If  the  "  Bengal  tigers,"  and  the  passionate 
folk  generally,  of  all  ages  and  conditions  of  life,  who 
storm  and  rage  through  the  world,  to  the  discomfort 
of  those  with  whom  they  are  brought  into  contact, 
could  be  supplied  with  congenial  occupation,  and  a 
vent  for  their  energy  in  some  useful  physical  enter- 
prise they  would  be  spared  many  regrets,  and  those 
around  them  much  needless  annoyance,  and  even 
injury.  The  self-cure  of  this  temperament  should 
take  the  form  of  exercise,  of  sufficient  quantity  and 


72  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

kind  to  give  the  body  more  work,  and  the  mind 
better  command  of  the  organism  and  machinery  for 
which  it  is  responsible. 

The  reverse  order  of  temper — the  sullen  and  un- 
impressionable—  is  generally  to  be  regarded  with 
distrust  or  anxiety.  There  is  a  certain  stolid  tem- 
perament, the  complement  of  stupidity,  of  which  no 
judgment  can  be  formed  except  from  the  character  as 
a  whole ;  it  may  be  either  the  fruit  of  general  inert- 
ness, or  a  lack  of  quick  sensibility,  under  which  lurk 
the  vices  of  pure  animalism.  When,  however,  we 
find  a  cold  immovable  exterior  with  indications  of 
quick  intelligence  behind,  there  is  reason  to  mistrust 
appearances,  and  cherish  some  fear  of  the  reserve 
maintained.  It  would  not  be  universally  just,  but  it  is 
generally  true,  to  say  of  these  mysterious  tempera- 
ments, that  they  are  dangerous.  The  moral  nature 
seems  hide-bound.  The  inner  being,  the  "heart" — 
call  it  what  we  may — is  not  in  natural  relations  with 
the  outer  world ;  companionship,  in  any  real  sense,  is 
difficult,  and  confidence,  unless  it  has  been  engendered 
by  long  observation  of  conduct,  is  impossible.  The 
temper  may  be  stable,  but  it  is  not  trusted,  because  it 
lies  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  social  tests,  and 
affords  none  of  the  familiar  and  accepted  indications 
of  character.  It  is  like  a  barometer  with  the  face 
covered.     The  mercury  may  be  duly  affected  by  the 


Tempers — Good  and  Bad.  73 

external  conditions,  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that 
it  is,  and  the  individual  is  a  moral  sphinx. 

When  an  immovable  temperament  is  allied  to  a 
kindly  and  honest  nature,  the  individual  is  at  first 
regarded  with  suspicion,  if  not  dislike;  and  if,  in 
process  of  time,  he  comes  to  be  understood,  he  is 
respected  rather  than  loved.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  this  frigid,  insensible  exterior,  with  an 
unimpassioned  character,  is  to  be  regretted.  Those 
who  feel  themselves  dissociated,  as  it  were,  from  those 
around  them  by  the  lack  of  average  sensibility,  will 
do  wisely  to  cultivate  the  emotions,  at  least  so  far  as 
to  obtain  command  of  the  faculty  of  expression.  It  is 
a  misfortune  to  be  so  reserved  that  confidence  cannot 
be  inspired,  even  when  the  real  feelings  are  genial 
and  benevolent.  Sometimes  this  reserve  is  simulated 
rather  than  actual.  An  acute  sensibility  may  be 
repressed  by  the  spectacle  of  emotional  display,  and 
conduct  known  to  be  at  variance  with  the  actual 
character,  in  others.  The  observer  represses  his  own 
"  feelings,"  and  by  degrees  they  become  immovable. 

Occasionally  the  like  effect  is  produced  by  contact 
with  natures  uncongenial  or  insincere.  The  man  with 
a  seemingly  cold  and  insensate  temperament  has  io 
self-defence,  or  under  the  influence  of  a  strong  feeling 
of  aversion,  retired  into  himself,  and  is  henceforth 
apparently  immovable,  though   not  really  unmoved. 


74  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

In  the  study  of  individual  character,  it  is  necessary  to 
take  all  these  possibilities  into  account,  and  make  due 
allowance  for  every  factor  contributing  to  the  general 
result.  The  complexity  and  delicacy  of  the  task 
naturally  render  misconceptions  probable  ;  and  not  a 
few  of  the  characters  and  tempers  we  encounter  are 
what  mistake  has  made  them.  The  honest  and  sturdy 
mind  will  struggle  against  the  force  of  circumstances^ 
and  break  down  the  barriers  accident  may  have  raised 
around  it.  In  this  work  of  correction  faults  of 
temper  may  be  amended,  while  false  impressions  are 
removed. 

The  really  sullen  temper  probably  no  sort  of  treat- 
ment, addressed  to  the  mere  remedying  of  surface 
defects,  can  improve.  It  is  the  almost  constant 
counterpart  of  an  unsympathetic  nature,  selfishly  intent 
upon  its  own  secret  ends  and  purposes.  The  isolation 
at  the  surface  is  the  reflex  of  isolation  at  heart.  The 
lack  of  response  to  appeals  from  without  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  their  force  is  not  felt.  There  is  no  expres- 
sion of  feeling  because  there  is  none  to  express.  The 
self-consciousness  is  engrossed  with  its  own  concerns, 
and  unmoved  by  those  considerations  of  regard  for 
the  outer  world  and  its  affairs  which  give  shape  to  the 
anxieties  of  hope  and  fear  that  stir  the  emotions  and 
influence  the  conduct  of  less  obdurate  beings.  The 
combination  of  a  sullen  temper  with   an  intelligent 


Tempers — Good  and  Bad.  75 

mind  argues  thorough  selfishness  of  the  lowest  type^ 
which  no  mere  change  of  manner  can  transform.  It 
does  not  follow  that  the  inner  nature  with  its  motives 
and  impulses  must  be  malignant,  but  they  have  na 
direct  relations  with  the  surroundings  of  the  individual, 
and  are  neither  responsive  to  the  mute  appeal  of 
suffering  nor  sympathetic  with  the  sorrow  or  happiness- 
of  others. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  the  world  lays  toa 
much  stress  on  mere  peculiarities  of  "temper,"  but 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  prevailing  method  of 
forming  an  estimate  is  unsound.  Idiosyncrasies  of 
temperament  are  not  immediately  under  the  control 
of  the  will;,  and  it  is  well  that  this  should  be  so. 
Direct  attempts  to  reform  vices  of  temper  are  there- 
fore commonly  unavailing.  The  aim  should  be  to 
amend  those  defects  of  the  inner  character  out  of 
which  the  faults  of  manner  and  method  spring.  Irri« 
tabihty  should  be  cured  by  attention  to  the  physical 
health  and  avoidance  of  habits  of  thought  which  leave 
the  mind  a  prey  to  the  caprices  of  fortune,  or  render 
it  the  creature  of  circumstances.  To  most  minds  the 
cultivation  of  emotional  sensibility  is  a  mistake.  Un- 
fortunately the  conventional  developments  of  taste, 
especially  that  of  the  dramatic  instinct — which  all 
highly  sensitive  natures  possess — give  impetus  to  the 
growth  of  sentimentality,  and,  unless  the  "  heart "  be 


76  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

as  tender  as  the  "  feelings "  are  acute,  there  is  a  per- 
petual peril  that  the  outer  temperament  will  cease  to 
represent  the  inner  consciousness,  so  that  the  emotions 
no  longer  express  the  deeper  sentiments ;  and,  when 
this  happens,  irritability  of  temper  and  insincerity  of 
character  are  quickly  established. 

True  temper,  in  the  best  and  only  worthy  sense, 
implies  perfect  truthfulness  and  consistency.  If  the 
heart  be  right,  the  temper  may  be  improved  by  acquir- 
ing more  complete  control  of  the  emotional  nature ; 
but  improvement  must  begin  within  and  work  out- 
wards. If  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  the  platter  be 
cleansed  while  the  interior  is  foul,  the  pretended  im- 
provement will  not  only  be  unreal,  but  it  will  consist 
in  the  assumption  of  a  fictitious  calm  more  mis- 
chievous than  the  wildest  vagaries  of  the  uncontrolled 
mind.  Temper  is  a  quality  of  order  and  self-manage- 
ment, which  to  be  natural  must  spring  naturally  from 
an  orderly  and  well-disciplined  nature  ;  and,  unless  it 
be  thus  produced,  it  is  not  temper  at  all,  but  the 
counterfeit  presentment  of  a  quality  ;  worse  than 
valueless  because  false,  and  fostering  insincerity. 
Strong  and  deep  feeling  will  generally  seek  warm 
expression  in  telling  tones  and  vigorous  deeds.  The 
glamour  of  judgment  which  enforced  restraint  casts 
over  a  nature  practised  in  self-control  is  only  excel- 
lent when   passion  is   ruled  by  reason   rather  ths^n 


Tempers — Good  and  Bad,  77 

curbed  by  policy  or  a  cold  passionless  sentiment  of 
self-interest  and  esteem.  The  expert  novelist  endows 
his  consummate  scoundrel  with  perfect  temper,  while 
he  credits  the  guileless  hero  with  an  impulsive  and 
generous  emotional  nature  which  hardly  brooks  con- 
trol. In  the  main,  the  principle  embodied  in  this 
method  of  portraiture  is  true  to  nature,  albeit  the  arti- 
fice is  somewhat  hackneyed  and  apt  to  be  exaggerated 
in  detail. 

The  Supreme  Ideal  of  Perfect  Humanity  presents 
entire  sincerity  as  the  first  feature  of  excellence,  and  a 
faithful  expression  of  the  deeper  traits  of  the  character 
completes  the  picture.  The  moment  consistency  is 
marred  either  by  excess  of  seeming  emotion  on  the 
one  hand,  or  by  artificial  restraint  on  the  other, 
harmony  and  every  claim  to  respect  for  integrity  are 
destroyed. 


"CREATURES   OF    CIRCUM- 
STANCE." 

There  is  a  humiliating,  though  apologetic  view  of 
human  nature  and  life,  which  regards  men  and  women 
as  "creatures  of  circumstance."  Every  philosophy 
-must  recognise  that  both  mind  and  body  are  influenced 
,in  a  remarkable  degree  by  their  surroundings,  and 
that  the  conditions  of  growth  determine,  or  at  least 
largely  qualify,  their  development;  but  this  is  far 
short  of  saying  that  man  is  not  only  by  accident,  but 
by  design,  simply  what  the  influences  at  work  around 
him  and  the  forces  that  operate  on  his  physical  and 
mental  organism  combine  to  make  him.  The  hypo- 
thesis crude  Materialism  propounds  represents  man- 
kind as  constituted  of  lumps  of  clay  cast  into  the 
midst  of  a  scene  where  everything — except  the  plastic 
being  man — is  hard  and  exercises  a  moulding  power 
•over  character,  while  human  nature  alone  is  passive 
and  impressible. 

There  is  always  value  in  a  doctrine  or  view  of  life 
which  has  survived  the  test  of  ages,  and  there  can  be 
no  question  brt  that  there  is  truth  in  the  dogma  of 


^*  Creatures  of  Circumstance.^^        79 

Materialism.  Let  us  see  what  the  measure  of  that 
truth  really  is.  We  know  that  as  to  his  physical 
nature  man  is,  in  fact  and  experience,  largely  influenced 
by  the  food  he  eats,  the  air  he  breathes,  and  the  con- 
ditions which  compel  the  development  of  certain  parts 
of  his  organism,  while  they  allow  others  to  lie  dormant. 
The  savage,  who  lives  principally  on  the  game  he 
hunts,  will  be  essentially  animal  in  his  type,  and,  while 
those  powers  and  faculties  which  are  called  into  action 
by  his  pursuits  are  vigorous,  others,  not  so  imme- 
diately useful,  will  be  neglected.  The  like  is  true  of 
the  dweller  in  cities,  who  has  his  food  brought  to  him, 
and  in  whose  dietary  gross  substances  are  to  some 
extent  replaced  by  more  refined  and  less  animalising 
elements  of  nutrition;  he  can  scarcely  vie  with  the 
savage  in  quickness  of  eye  or  fleetness  of  foot,  but  he 
surpasses  him  in  powers  better  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  civilised  life  and  a  higher  mental  development. 
The  brain  is  just  as  amenable  to  the  laws  of  develop- 
ment as  any  other  part  of  the  body,  and  the  character 
is,  in  large  measure,  the  outcome  or  moral  reflex  of 
the  brain. 

Again,  the  whole  being  of  man  is  influenced  by  the 
associations  amid  which  he  is  placed ;  the  sounds,  the 
sights  around  him  are  factors  in  his  personal  develop- 
inent.  The  type  of  humanity  found  on  the  sea  coast 
differs  from  that  encountered  in  inland  districts,  and 


8o  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

every  characteristic  form  of  locale  produces  its  special 
results.  Not  only  does  the  habit  of  life  affect  the 
organism,  but  the  impression  wrought  continuously  by 
external  objects  exerts  a  controUing  formative  influ- 
ence by  directing  the  thoughts  into  certain  channels 
and,  so  to  say,  making  grooves  for,  and  giving  certain 
turns  and  twists  to,  the  mind.  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
widely  different  the  sympathies  and  emotional  nature 
must  be  in  the  case  of  a  being  brought  up  amid  the 
wild  associations  of  a  boisterous  clime,  and  in  that  of 
one  bred  under  the  silent  suasive  influences  of  a  scene 
seldom  disturbed  by  the  stronger  forces  of  the  physical 
world,  and  therefore  presenting  only  its  milder  and 
more  genial  phenomena. 

Peculiarities  of  development  wrought  by  the  ope- 
ration of  external  circumstances  on  individuals  may 
be  reproduced  by  inheritance  in  tlieir  offspring,  and 
in  this  way  what  were  at  first  personal  traits  come  to 
be  family  and  even  national  and  racial  characteristics. 
These,  in  process  of  years,  are  modified  by  surround- 
ing influences,  changes  of  scene,  and  contact  or 
mingling  with  other  types  of  character,  so  that  at 
length  stock  features  of  development  in  body  and 
mind  are  blended  or  confused,  and  it  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  trace  them  back  to  their  several 
original  sources.  Thus  far  we  see  men  and  women 
may  be,  and  in  truth  are,  "  creatures  of  circumstance." 


"  Creatures  of  Circumstancer        8i 

The  student  of  nature  finds,  as  he  traces  the  de- 
velopment of  body  and  brain,  in  the  animal  kingdom, 
increased  perfection  of  special  organs,  side  by  side 
with  the  appearance,  or  improvement,  of  certain 
faculties.  For  example,  as  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  nose, 
and  the  tongue  and  palate  are  more  constantly  and 
perfectly  developed,  the  special  senses  are  found  to 
be  present  in  higher  form.  In  the  same  way,  though 
not  quite  so  directly,  the  development  of  certain 
portions  of  the  brain  is  parallel  with  the  exhibition  of 
faculties  which  constitute  the  phenomena  of  mind. 
The  observer  is  fully  justified  in  reasoning  by  in- 
duction, and  assuming  the  connection  of  the  physical 
and  mental  facts  as  cause  and  effect ;  but  he  is  not 
justified  in  pretending  to  be  able  to  decide  which  are 
the  causes  and  which  the  effects.  No  law  is  more 
clearly  embodied  in  nature  than  that  which  makes  the 
development  of  an  organ  dependent  upon  its  use. 

Well-meaning  but  short-sighted  persons  have  gone 
astray  and  done  mischief  by  rejecting  the  teachings 
of  Darwin.  The  doctrine  of  Evolution  finally  dis- 
poses of  the  fundamental  dogma  of  the  materialistic 
philosophy  by  showing  that  no  organ  continues  to  be 
developed  when  it  has  ceased  to  be  used,  and  none  is 
wanting  when  there  is  a  need  for  it.  The  blacksmfth 
develops  the  muscles  of  his  arm  by  use  in  his  trade. 
The  spur  of  the  cock  has  dwindled  down  to  the  mere 

G 


82  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

rudiment  of  an  organ  of  defence  since  the  animal  has 
been  domesticated.  The  history  of  Hfe  and  organisms 
shows  beyond  question  that  the  lower  animals  have  in 
a  very  marked  degree  been,  in  this  way,  creatures  of 
circumstance,  losing  what  they  did  not  require,  and 
developing  organs  adapted  to  their  special  needs.  The 
simple  reasoning  of  analogy  explains  that  what  has 
happened  with  the  body  has  happened  with  the  brain. 
Man  has  received  a  highly-developed  brain  because 
he  has  also  received  a  mind  to  use  it.  Brain  has  been 
suddenly  developed  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  for 
the  service  of  mind,  instead  of  mind  being  nothing 
more  than  the  outcome  of  brain.  If  the  latter  were 
the  fact,  the  chain  of  development  would  have  been 
perfect ;  as  it  is,  scientists  search  in  vain  for  the  "  miss- 
ing link."     Spirit  and  mind  have  appeared  suddenly. 

If  mind  were  the  mere  outcome  of  matter  in  the  form 
of  brain,  every  one  with  a  large  and  healthy  headpiece 
should  be  intellectual.  The  children  of  well-disciplined 
and  virtuous  parents  ought  to  be  docile  and  virtuous  > 
unless  compelling  circumstances  made  them  otherwise, 
and  even  then  the  hereditary  leaning  to  virtue  would 
be  evident.  We  know  this  is  not  the  fact,  and  the 
conviction  is  forced  upon  us  that  brain  is  not  the 
essence  of  mind,  but  only  its  agent.  Meanwhile  the 
mind  has  no  other  instrument  of  expression  than  the 
brain ;  so  that,  even  if  a  man  with  a  small  or  imperfect 


"  Creatures  of  Circumstanced        83 

brain  happens  to  have  a  large  and  powerful  mind,  he 
cannot  show  himself  the  possessor  of  an  intellect  in 
excess  of  his  brain-power.  The  study  of  cases  of 
idiocy  throws  much  interesting  light  on  this  subject. 
It  is  found  by  experts  in  the  treatment  of  this  most 
pitiable  class  of  human  creatures  that  by  discovering 
an  avenue  to  the  mind  the  intellect  may  be  educated  \ 
in  process  of  time,  the  results  obtained  in  the  way  of 
enlightenment  are  very  remarkable.  The  instrument 
existed,  but  the  power  behind,  which  should  have 
brought  it  into  action,  was  dormant. 

Science  has  nothing  to  teach  which  should  tend  to 
unsettle  the  faith  of  any  man  in  the  belief  that  there  is 
a  soul  or  a  mind — call  it  what  we  please — behind  the 
veil  of  the  flesh,  and  to  which  the  physical  and  mental 
faculties  of  humanity  are  the  means  of  expression  and 
intercourse  with  the  outer  world.  The  more  perfect 
the  instrument,  the  wider  its  compass,  the  better  its 
tone,  the  higher  in  point  of  excellence  will  be  the 
function  it  performs ;  but  neither  the  range  of  the 
performance  nor  its  character  can  be  a  certain  measure 
of  the  power  behind ;  the  defects  observed  may  be 
either  the  fault  of  the  instrument  or  the  deficiency  of 
the  moving  energy. 

We  are  "  creatures  of  circumstance  "  up  to  a  certain 
limit,  and  circumstances  exert  a  powerful  influence  on 
both  our  bodies  and  minds;   but   this   fact   neither 


84  Common  Mind-Troubles. 

explains  nor  excuses  the  faults  of  individual  character 
— still  less  does  it  lessen  the  weight  of  personal  respon- 
sibility. Those  who  seek  refuge  from  an  accusing  con- 
science— reproachful  for  neglect — in  this  hypothesis, 
are  looking  for  protection  where  none  can  be  found.  It 
is  the  bounden  duty  of  man  to  emancipate  his  being 
from  the  thraldom  of  surrounding  influences.  It  is 
fortunate  w^hen  these  are  good ;  but  no  merit  can  then 
arise  from  the  effect  they  produce  on  his  character. 
The  noble  part  to  play  is  to  "get  the  better  of  circum- 
stance "  and  triumph  over  depressing  and  distracting 
forces  which  war  against  the  interests  of  the  soul. 

The  infinitely  humiliating  figment  that  man's  nature 
is  wholly  plastic  is  one  which  should  be  repudiated  by 
the  instinct  of  self-respect.  We  know  and  feel  in 
our  inner  consciousness  that  we  can  bufiet  the  waves, 
and  struggle  long  and  valiantly  for  life,  even  if  we 
cannot  reach  the  shore.  Much  mischief  has  been 
wrought  on  weak  minds  by  the  craven  plea  that  man 
is  the  creature  of  circumstances.  It  is  time  to  fling 
that  sinister  aphorism  to  the  winds,  and  replace  it  by 
one  of  bolder  and  more  pregnant  import.  Man  is  the 
master  of  circumstances.  Those  he  has  not  himself 
created  he  can  subjugate,  and  employ  as  means  to  his 
own  noble  and  honest  ends. 


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